Dragon's Echo
by Frozen Twins
Summary: The Goverment Shut the Tamers out of the digital world. For three years, they've waited for a spark of hope, and now it's come in the form of an X Digimon. Takato will learn that some promises can't be kept, and that Guilmon's biggest threat, is himself
1. Chapter 1 Three Years Later

Frozen Twins: Alright… here's my third story…hopefully I'll actually be able to finish it this time. But I have learned from my mistakes. With Dimensional Echoes I had way to much going on and extra little stuff that didn't need to be their. With Dawn's Echoes: The death of a Friend… I had way to many Main characters, (Let's see… including Digimon I had… 65 or so. Yeah… you see why I stopped that one.)

Betamon X: anyways this one's different, just dealing with the Tamers, and no crazy ideas with stuff that didn't show up in the show.

Gomamon: so we present to you the next try and the fanfic…

Dragon's Fury 

Chapter 1

Three Years Later

"Takato!" Takato's mom called, "didn't you forget something?" she asked.

"Like what?" he asked his arms full of a bag with bread.

"Oh… I don't know… maybe like you're homework?" she asked.

"I'll do it when I get back." Takato said.

"And where are you going with all of that bread, it's not like you need it anymore." She said.

"Me and my friends are having a picnic." Takato said as his eyes saddened at the thought of his partner.

"oh… sorry." Mrs. Matsuki said apologetically.

Takato grinned and used the chance to get out, he had gotten 10 feet when Mrs. Matsuki leaned out the side door, "be home by 7:00!" she called.

"Ok… I will." Takato cried out, so with that, the fifteen year old boy who had saved the world was off to meet with his friends. A casual viewer would see a boy with scruffy hair, a pair of goggles and a maroon tee-shirt with a hood. If they were good at noticing detail, they would also see that he had khaki pants that were rolled up, two red sweatbands, one with the hazard symbol, the other with the tri-force, and that he had a Gold D-Arc clipped to his pants.

Takato kept running until he got to the park, it was a different one then he used to go to, because that one had been closed down by the government.. Henry and Kenta were sitting on the grass battling with their digimon cards while Suzie was writing in her notebook that she always kept with her. "Hey guys." He said as he set the bag of bread on the blanket Suzie and Henry had brought.

"Hey Takato." Henry said, "We need to wait a bit longer, though.." He said, "where the only one's here."

Takato nodded, "well… lets see, Steven lives on the other side of town… so does Rika. Jeri should be here pretty soon, and I'm sure Kazu is hanging out with the skaters instead of us." He told them.

"Yeah… he is." Kenta said, "he says he doesn't believe in digimon anymore and gave me all of his cards."

"What did he do with his D-ark?" Henry asked.

"I don't know, I haven't seem him wearing it for over a year and a half." Kenta told him.

Takato sighed remembering that Kazu started telling them that the D-Reaper didn't exist 6 months after the digimon left, then he started saying they never went to the digital world, then that their digimon where the only digimon that existed. Now he was flat out denying that digimon had ever existed in the first place. Takato turned around and a grin appeared on his face. "Hey Ryo!" he shouted as the tamer came up and joined them.

Henry digivolved his Agumon to Tyranomon, "Hey. Haven't seen you around for awhile. When did you get into town?" he asked.

"My dad was coming into town today so he was able to drop me off." Ryo said.

"Nice." Takato said, "so how have you been doing?" He asked.

"Alright I guess, but theirs school on Monday, so I guess I can't say all that good." Ryo told them.

"It's life." Henry said.

Ryo looked at Kenta's hand, "throw three and digivolve Vaccine." He told Kenta.

"But Tyranomon is strong against vaccines." Kenta told him.

"You would prefer for him to get to go Mega?" Ryo asked.

Henry glared at the Tamer King… of course he had been dethroned a few times… and Rika was now officially the best player… and he came in fourth, but still… he was in fourth. "You mind not giving away my strategies?" Henry asked.

"You need to learn to play against people who can read you." Ryo said, "otherwise you'll never get better."

Takato chuckled at the two. Ryo let the two duke it out and walked over to the leader of the group. "Hey Takato… can I ask you a question?"

"You don't need to ask Ryo." Takato told him.

"Well… I was wondering what ever happened to you and Jeri?" he asked.

Takato was taken back for a moment, then composed himself, "Well…nothing really."

"I thought you guys where going out for awhile." Ryo said.

"We were… but then we just stopped, and then nothing. I guess we just sort of simultaneously decided that we didn't want to go through any drama." Takato told his friend, "I mean, were still really good friends, and I take her out for friend dates occasionally, but nothing serious like we were."

"Ah…" Ryo said, "That probably would have been a lot better then what me and Rika went through." He said.

"That's what you get when you move onto a giwl to fast." Suzie told the older teen not looking up from her notebook.

"I wasn't moving too fast." Ryo defended.

"Second date and alweady wanting to make out?" Suzie said, "wway to fast." She went back to writing in her notebook.

Takato chuckled and looked at his friend, "yeah… I'm going to have to agree with Suzie on that one."

Ryo rolled his eyes, "right… and I'm supposed to take advice from a kid who hasn't even kissed a girl other then his mom?"

Henry played Pluck, "that's game…" he said as he picked up his cards.

"No way… I lost again." Kenta said, "it doesn't matter, I guess I'll just have to go and buy some more cards again." He said as he handed a card over to Henry.

"Keep it… you need them more then I do." Henry told him.

"You could have won that." Ryo told Kenta.

"I guess I just stink at being a tamer," he said.

Ryo turned around to see a red haired girl in green slacks and a pink t-shirt. "Hey guys." Jeri said coming up, "Sorry I'm late… but I brought brownies." She said as she brought out the platter.

"Yeah… Bwonies!" Suzie said as she set down her notebook and pencil.

"Well, let's eat." Henry said, "I mean their no reason we should let the food get any colder." He said.

Everybody sat down to eat and started to make casual conversation. Suzie was quiet the whole time, and after she finished eating, she got up and went walking around.

"Hey Henry." Ryo asked, "what's up with you're sister?

Henry chewed through the Terriermon bread that Takato had made for him. "I don't know. She's been like this for about 8 months now. She's always either looking at nature or writing in that notebook of hers." He told them.

"I wonder why." Kenta said, "has she dueled anybody with cards lately?" he asked.

"Not that I know of." Henry said.

"She's came over to my place and dueled me a few times." Takato said. "She' s really good, I've only beaten her once."

Ryo raised his eyebrows, "only beaten her once…how many times have you guys dueled?" 

"Fourteen times I think." Takato told his friend, while chewing on some Guilmon bread.

Ryo raised his eyebrows, "Could Suzie be the second place ranked person?"

"You mean the Echoing Shadow … I don't think so." Henry said, " I don't know if she's ever even been in tournament."

"And besides," Kenta said, "the Echoing Shadow has cards no one else has ever even seen before."

Jeri laughed, "you know I've heard that the Shadow is some really hot guy." She said.

"And why does that matter?" Rika said walking up, "Besides, Shadow only plays online, nobody actually knows if it's a guy or a girl, but I'd be willing to put my money on that it's a girl just by the way she plays her cards."

"Aww come on Rika." Ryo said, "you just had to go and burst Jeri's bubble that their may be a guy out their as hot as me."

Takato and Henry both snorted at the same time and Kenta's eyes went wide. "If it isn't Mr. Perfect." Rika said snottily, "what are you doing here?" She asked.

"I do have things such as friends you know." Ryo said.

"I'm sorry… all I've ever seen is fan girls." She said.

Takato pulled out his little notepad and put Rika's and Ryo's name on it. He put a tally under Rika's name. Henry grinned. "Fangirls aren't that great…but who's the one who has at least twelve stalkers." Takato put a tally under Ryo's name.

"You know… I don't even know how you got Fangirls. You're uglier then an Ogremon." Rika shot back.

Takato put a mark under Rika's name.

"You know… if I didn't know better, I would say that you switched smells with a Raremon." Ryo said back. Takato looked at his pad, two to two.

"Quick question." Rika said, "did you switch you're brain with a Numemon, because you're comebacks are horrible?"

Takato put another mark under Rika's name.

Ryo gritted his teeth for a second, then came up with a good one, "you know what… you couldn't even get Numemon to follow after you because they'd all flock to your mom." He shot back.

Time stopped for everybody… then Ryo realized what he did. Number one rule… do not compare Rika to her mom, especially in looks. Rika slammed her foot into Ryo's face sending him five feet backwards.

"Nice kick." Jeri said.

Henry shook his head and Takato heard him say something about how Rika hadn't changed at all. Ryo then disappeared to go take care of his bloody nose.

Rika sat down and the picnic continued, Steven called and informed them that he couldn't make it today because of homework.

-

-

-

Suzie looked at the blue sky, it was so relaxing, and occasionally she could see Lopmon in the clouds… along with all the other digimon. Her eyes saddened at the thought of her partner. Three years ago Lopmon had left her. She never really understood what was happening, she had always known then that her digimon would eventually come back to her. It never crossed her mind that she would never return. As time went by, she never did understand why her father and Henry never talked. She never understood why Henry hadn't forgiven his dad. She was mad too that Lopmon had to go, but in the back of her mind, she was waiting for the day that their digimon would come back.

It never came, and then their was a glimmer of hope when Takato found the portal. He told everybody, but he also told Yamaki. Yamaki didn't mean to, but the government found out through him. They closed down that park, and now there was a high-security level facility around it. Then Yamaki was kicked off the job for wanting to let the tamers go get their partners. They had tried to sneak in once, but they almost got thrown in jail for life… luckily the jury was sympathetic and understood. They hadn't attempted to do that again.

It was after that, that Suzie had finally understood. They weren't ever going to see their digimon ever again. Henry's anger towards there farther made sense… Lopmon was gone to her forever. Since then she had started to seclude herself, she stopped hanging out with her friends, and started to hang out only with Takato, Henry and Rika. She also started to write.

Writing was her way of escaping the awful terror that gripped her, the fact that she couldn't ever see Lopmon again. She wrote stories of her and Lopmon. They would go on adventures together with Rika, and Takato and Henry and their digimon and beat the Dark Masters, defeat the D-reaper once more, and destroy Millenniumon himself, but it was all just a story, and she would wake up to find that none of that stuff had happened.

No one had ever read them but herself, but she didn't care. She didn't write for pleasure or attention… she wrote because that was the only way she could ever be with Lopmon again.

Because Lopmon was never coming back.

-

-

-

Kyubimon ran through the woods. She had improved a lot since she left Rika, and even though it was the hardest thing she's ever done, she wouldn't have had it any other way. Well, maybe if Rika had been with her here in the digital world, but that would be it. She had worked hard as rookie alongside Guilmon and Guardramon as laborers, or at least for the first short little while. They were helping build up Network city after the D-Reaper, their was plenty of work for everyone, and all digimon shared with each other and looked out for each other.

However, after there was enough housing for everyone, digimon started to look out for themselves again, but their was still this connection between all digimon of good will. They all had one thing in common, they survived the D-Reaper.

It wasn't long after the housing part of the city was done that an election was held. HiAndromon won the vote and started putting digimon to work immediately. They however had something else to do.

MarineAngemon came to them and said they he wanted to put together a hospital, as their was only one in the city so far, he had gotten enough money from HiAndromon, it's just that the price of laborers had gone up so much that they wouldn't be able to afford everything that was needed. The three of them agreed to help out and where paid 15 bits an hour. It wasn't much, but they could survive on it since they could sleep in the unfinished hospital.

It was while they were building the hospital, that Guilmon learned to digivolve on his own, which helped a lot. With Growlmon, they were able to build some bigger rooms for larger digimon. The whole project took about 8 months, and could house around 800 digimon. However, she and Guilmon left after the main part was done, Guardramon stayed on to help with all of the equipment wiring.

She and Guilmon then left and headed over to Blue Screen Bay. It was a nice little town that still needed some help, so she and Guilmon started working on fixing up the roads real nice. They got 24 bits an hour for this job and combined where able to live fairly decent. It was here that they ran into Terriermon and Lopmon.

At one of the Inns, Terriermon was doing stand up Comedy and Lopmon was a waitress. According to Lopmon, they were mates, according to Terriermon, he was still allowed to hit on pretty female digimon. It was their that she was finally able to digivolve to Kyubimon. Due to the fact that she could run very fast as Kyubimon, she got hired on as a guard for a company that did delivery's. The corporation had her helping from trading to carrying packages that needed to be their quick.

Guilmon on the other hand had trouble finding work since he wasn't an Aquatic digimon, and wasn't the brightest of all digimon on top of that. He finally was able to get hired on in a mining operation for Chrome-Digizoid. It was really good for him since it put all of his skills to work, his ability to dig, his nose… and he could melt the metal to it's pure substance so it could be sold for more to Digi-smiths.

She had just made a delivery to Megabyte and was returning home to Guilmon. They had had an interesting relationship before they got married. Guilmon never really did anything to get her attention but be himself. She enjoyed the way he always made mistakes and could laugh it off, she enjoyed the innocence he had, the kindness he held beneath his powerful exterior. Guilmon had always allowed her to relax like never before.

They had only been married for six months now, but their egg was ready to hatch, and she was ready to settle down and watch their kid until he/she could handle themselves on their own. Her mind track settled down as she neared the town.

Kyubimon slowed down as she entered into Blue Screen Town and walked to her work. She de-digivolved and walked in. "Morning Renamon." Pen**guin**mon said looking up from his book accounting, "just give me a sec to register that you made it in." he said.

He looked through the files until he found hers, "alright… so it was a simple package delivery… 180 Bits plus another 50 for quick delivery." He said. He went over and opened the safe and got out 230 bits. "Here you go."

"Thank you… hey, theirs something else I wanted to do." Renamon told him.

"Hmmm… what's that."

"I'm turning in my resign form…" She said.

Pen**guin**mon raised his eyebrows, "Really… aww that stinks… the boss won't like that, you're really one of our best workers." He said.

"I know, it's just that I'm going to have a kid soon, and want to take care of him myself. I don't feel comfortable letting somebody else teach my kid values. I feel it takes away the responsibility of being a mother." She told him.

"I understand, my wife did the same thing before the D-Reaper." Pen**guin**mon said.

"Oh…I'm sorry." Renamon said apologetically.

"It's life… I'll tell Blo**ss**omon, but I don't think she'll be happy." He said.

"Thank you." Renamon said, and left.

Pen**guin**mon handed the note about Renamon leaving to Tok**o**mon, who took the message up to Blo**ss**omon.

Blo**ss**omon looked at the note, "Thank you… you may be off." He told Tok**o**mon. He turned around to Musya**mon**. "Renamon wants to quit." She told him.

Musya**mon** raised his eyebrows, "We can't let her go, we'll lose 33 percent of our profits." He said.

Blo**ss**omon nodded, "I know… and I've been expecting her to leave ever since she had that egg." She said. "That's why I've enlisted some "help"." she said.

Demi-**devi**mon stood on the wind sill. "I heard that you need to keep a worker?" he said evilly.

"You have them?" Blo**ss**omon asked.

Demi-**devi**mon produced six items, "Three Black Gears, Three Black Rings." He said.

"Why do we need both?" Musya**mon** asked, "and I thought Black Rings only worked in the presence of a tower."

The bat smiled, "you see, digimon as strong willed as Renamon and Guilmon can sometimes fight off one of these, but never both, as for the Black Rings, they have been modified to feed off digital world instead of a Black Tower, so a spire is no longer needed."

"Why three sets though?" Musya**mon** asked.

Blo**ss**omon picked them up, "This way, we keep Renamon, and we can get Guilmon as our own private bodyguard, he's the strongest Champion I have ever seen… plus their kid is bound to be powerful." She said grinning. She turned to the bat, "here, 10,000 bits. All yours." she said.

"Thank you." Demi-**devi**mon said grinning, and took off, he was going to make a killing Black-Marketing those things. Maybe he should invest some money into making the Rings camouflaged.

-

-

-

Lopmon carried dinner to the awaiting Mushroomon, she set it down with her left ear and mixed up his drink with her hands. She handed him his drink. "Thank you, you're really a pretty one, so I'd be careful." The Mushroomon said giving her a three bit tip.

"Thank you, and don't worry, I will be, and I have Terriermon to back me up if I ever do get into trouble anyways." Lopmon said to him. She then went over and handed Terriermon his meal.

"Thanks." Terriermon said, getting down and giving his mate a hug,

"Don't worry about it." Lopmon said wrapping her ears around him.

Terriermon eyed a few Gaburimon. "Do you want me to stay tonight?" he asked her.

"I should be fine." She told him.

"Are you sure? Terriermon asked.

"I'll be fine, **F**loramon will be here as well." She told him.

Terriermon could tell the Gaburimon had one to many drinks., "I don't know."

"I'll be fine." Lopmon insisted.

Terriermon was still unsure, "alright…" he said as he got up and started eating his food. He eyed the Gaburimon as they left.

He got up, kissed Lopmon good bye and left for home.

It was a nice night out, the breeze coming off the ocean produced a nice little whistle and it lifted his ears up a little bit. He opened them to catch as much of the wind as possible and jumped and started to glide. He let himself be carried by the wind to the house he was sharing with Guilmon and Renamon. He walked in to find Renamon sitting on the counter looking at her egg. "That was a quick delivery." He told her.

"Yeah…" she said. Terriermon could tell that she was thinking about something else, "do you know where Guilmon is? He's late." She said with worry in her voice.

Terriermon shrugged his shoulders, "you got me, he didn't stop by the inn tonight." He told her.

Renamon looked at her egg, "I'm worried…", she said as she started to fidget.

"And you want me to watch the egg while you go out looking for him?" he asked.

"If you would." Renamon said concerned for her mate.

"Momenti, I'm sure Guilmon's safe." He said.

Renamon nodded, "still… I'm going to go out and look for him."

Terriermon watched her go out the door. He grabbed the egg off the counter and brought it into the living room where he turned on the T.V. The only station that they got out here was a weather station, which was crucial to the industries around here, but not very entertaining. He looked through his movie collection (well, his and Guilmon's, the girls had their own chick flick section). He finally grabbed Teenage Mutant Ninja Kamemon. It was an old school movie, but it was still awesomely intense.

The movie was about half over when he pressed paused and turned to the egg. It had moved. "Oh Baihumon it." Terriermon swore. He grabbed the egg and rushed upstairs with it shaking and cracking madly in his ears. He placed in a basket of pillows, and the egg started to thrash violently. The young baby digimon finally broke through after about ten minutes.

"Hi." The small purple digimon said.

"Hi?" Terriermon said sweat dropping. He didn't know anything about Fresh digimon, so how was he supposed to take care of him.

"I'm hungry." The digimon said.

Terriermon smiled, of course, all digimon are always hungry. "hold on one sec." He said as he ran downstairs. He grabbed a pasty food, "yuck, Fresh food." He said holding his nose with his hands and keeping the jar as far away as his ears could stretch. He then grabbed a spoon with his other ear while trying to open the jar of Fresh food. He went upstairs only to find the new born digimon missing. "Baihumon… It's been three minutes and I've already lost Renamon's kid… she's going to kill me." He said as he set the Fresh food jar down, with the lid off and started looking around. He looked everywhere he could in that room, and when he couldn't find the new born, started searching for the baby in other rooms.

He searched though his and Lopmon's room and couldn't find the little guy, then checked the bathroom but there was still no sign of him. He swore again.

He went back to Guilmon's and Renamon's room to see the digimon sleeping with the Fresh food all over his face and the jar of food spilled all over the floor. He picked the little kid up and wiped his face with a napkin.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen a digimon like you before." Terriermon said while cradling the digimon in his ears. Terriermon set the new digimon down in his crib, which took some doing since it was made for taller digimon.

Terriermon looked at the digimon, when it started snoring. "Dodomon… Dodomon… Dodomon…" it snored.

Terriermon shook his head, "Renamon's going to kill Me." He said as he started to clean up the mess caused by the Fresh food.

-

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-

Alright, so what do you guys think, yeah, na… to short? What? Did I portray people bad, did I OC them, does it just plain all around suck… just let me know whatever.

Betamon X: yeah… oh and one thing we forgot to mention, we'll probably Cameo a lot of characters from all of our other stories, so expect that, however, we will NOT be making the same mistake as Dawn's Echoes.

Gomamon: alright, I'll be the one who recaps everything important that's happened in the last chapter, and at the end of each chapter, so let see. Some of the Tamer's had started to fall apart, Kazu went in denial, and Suzie became depressed, while Henry isn't willing to forgive his dad for what he did.

(Quick Note, the events of the last movie happened in between the time that the d-reaper was defeated and their digimon were forced to go home.)

Gomamon: and on the digital side of things, we find out that Renamon and Guilmon have been doing odd jobs and the such until they were able to finally settle down into a little town. MarineAngemon and Guardramon are running a hospital while Terriermon and Lopmon are working in an Inn in that same town, and the four of them have their place together. Let's see…anything I'm forgetting?

Betamon X: Well, we learned that Takato and Jeri just kind of drifted back to friends, Rika and Ryo got into a fight in which Ryo lost and that Black Gears and Rings still exist.

Gomamon: So I didn't forget anything important, well, review and let us know what you think.

One last thing, we need a Beta Reader… I would be honored to have somebody Beta read my works of Numemon sludge, so thank you…

The thing after the one last thing… I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this story, so if you guys have ideas, that would be awesome, otherwise we'll just see where this takes me. Thank you.


	2. Chapter 2 Captured

Dragon Echo

Chapter 2

Captured

Renamon leapt onto the next building, the wind had quieted down since Terriermon got in and now it was just a light breeze. She was worried about Guilmon, but she also felt that she was over worrying. She paused for a second, and flagged down **Dr**imogemon. She leapt down from the roof top, "have you seen Guilmon?" she asked him.

"Guilmon… no, he didn't come to work today." **Dr**imogemon told her, "but there was an accident yesterday and I think Guilmon got hurt, other then that I don't know anything."

"Thank you." Renamon said graciously to him, and then headed off. More then likely he went in to get his injuries checked and they told him that he was to hurt to be in the mine, so they put him on melting duty. She flipped down from the building across the refinery and walked in. Ga**bum**on looked up as she came in.

"Oh, hey Renamon." He said, "What brings you here?" he asked.

"I was looking for Guilmon… usually he's home by 7:00, and it's already 9:00." She said.

"He's in the back, there was an accident in the mine yesterday and he held up an entire section of the mine until we could get some rescuers down there. He's out today because his arms were so exhausted that he could hardly move them, we told him to go home and he'd be paid for the day, but he insisted on working here." He told her. Renamon shook her head, that was Guilmon for you, he was always going to make sure that every bit he was paid, he earned.

"Do you mind if I go in?" she asked.

"Go for it, I tried sending him home an hour ago, but he insisted on staying tell the job was done." Gabumon told him.

Renamon shook her head and went in. Guilmon was the only one left in there, and he had gotten almost all of it refined down. "Pyro Sphere!" He called melting a little bit more.

"Hey dino-boy." Renamon said walking up to him.

"Hmmm," Guilmon said clearly surprised at being disturbed from his work, "oh… hey Renamon." He said. He gave her a hug getting a bunch of Chrome dust all over her fur. "Oh…sorry," He said seeing what he had done.

"It's alright…" Renamon said brushing herself off, "but I wish you wouldn't work so late, I thought something had happened to you." She half scolded him.

"Oh… I'm sorry." Guilmon said, "I didn't know you were going to be home today." He said apologetically feeling guilty that he scared her.

Renamon smiled hearing her mate's apology, "It's alright." She said, "But come on…let's go home." Renamon said getting an excited glint in her eye.

Guilmon got what she was going at, "Alright, let me just clean up." He told her. Renamon nodded, and went and asked Ga**bum**on if she could use the female shower. Ga**bum**on didn't mind and told her go for it.

Guilmon measured out the ore he had melted down that day and put the rest back in the pile. He swept up the pile and went into the Male shower room. Usually they had larger digimon doing this kind of work, so most of the showers where too tall for him, but he could reach the knob that was made for 6 foot tall digimon. He let himself be rinsed down, he then lathered up in soap. He let the soap wash all of the grim away and shut the shower off.

He went out into the entry way, where Renamon was waiting.

-

-

-

Lopmon grabbed some more cups and brought them to the back where she put all of the dishes. She looked at the stack and sighed, she probably wasn't going to get home till 11:30 tonight. She shrugged her shoulders and went back to collecting dishes.

She went out for a third time and started washing down tables. She turned around when the door opened. "I'm sorry, but we're closed already." She said politely to the two Mushroomon.

"Oh really… well I guess that's too bad…cause I was so hoping for something." Mushroomon said.

Lopmon looked over at Floramon who was showing signs of being scared, and Lopmon understood why. It was commonplace for a Mushroomon to rape **F**loramon, it wasn't accepted, but it was commonplace, and **F**loramon had already had it done to her once, and as she wasn't going to let it happen again.

"Out!" she growled fiercely.

The Mushroomon chuckled, "somebody's gotten a little feisty now." He said.

"Blazing Ice!" She shouted as fiery ice chunk slammed into the front Mushroomon, startling him and sending him back a few feet. She leapt onto a table with a chair in her ears and used all of her weight to launch the chair at the other Mushroomon. It slammed into him sending him flying back a few feet and crumpling to the floor.

"**F**loramon run!" she shouted. **F**loramon didn't need to be told twice, she got out of there.

The Mushroomon got up angry and cursing. Lopmon got into a fighting stance on the table. "You may have pulled a fast one on us… but it won't Baihumoning happen again!" the first one swore, furious that a female could hit him.

Lopmon didn't say anything. "FUNGUS CRUNCHER!" the two Mushroomon cried throwing their mushrooms.

"Petit Twister!" Lopmon cried spinning and catching the mushrooms and releasing them back at their owners. Lopmon landed in her attack stance on the table, not disturbing the table at all. "You've got one last chance… now get out!" Lopmon said completely ready to Digitama-size them in an instant as they were pelted by their own attack.

The Mushroomon were pissed now, "You little Baka!" they taller one roared and started charging. Lopmon leapt off the table, flipped over his punch, grabbed him with her ears and as she landed she rocketed him into his partner. He dedigivolved to a Budmon as he slammed into his buddy.

"Sleeping Dart!" a cry came from behind Lopmon.

She turned around to see a Demi-**Devi**mon. "Hmm" she said as the dart jabbed into her neck. She pulled the dart out and started to get into a fighting stance, "I don't feel so good." Lopmon said as she grabbed onto a chair for support and felt her body start to shut down. She slumped onto the floor.

The remaining Mushroomon looked up at Demi-**Devi**mon, "Hey… go find your own girl. I saw this one first."

Demi-**Devi**mon laughed, "You thought you could take a digimon such as her on? How stupid can you're species get?" He asked.

The Mushroomon got mad at being called stupid, "At least we work for what we want and don't just steal off of other people." He shot back.

Demi-**Devi**mon put a band that held Lopmon's ears, legs and hands together; he then stuffed her into a bag. "Can I help it if I'm such a good businessmon? Anyways… you should be lucky that you're not a digitama right now."

The Mushroomon puffed out his chest, "oh and why is that… you think you can beat me?"

Demi-**Devi**mon laughed, "Not me… Lopmon here… if she wanted to she could have digitamasized you both in twenty seconds without digivolving, and with digivolving…oh I'd give it 5." He told the Mushroomon.

"Oh and why is that." The Mushroomon replied pridefully, not believing that a rookie female, emphasis on female, digimon could beat him.

"Because Lopmon here has been marked… not only by the Sovereign you serve… but also by a human. She's the only digimon in the Digital World like that," Demi-**Devi**mon said. He then grinned wickedly. "And she's going to make me a fortune." He said hoisting the bag with Lopmon and flying off with her.

He flew to the top of the roof, "Man…she's heavy." The bowling ball with wings told Devid**ramo**n.

"That's why I'm here." He growled, as he grabbed the bag and took off.

-

-

-

Guilmon and Renamon where walking home when a digimon flow over them. Renamon didn't notice it too much, but Guilmon stopped and eyed it as it took off. He felt a familiar scent enter his nose, one that smelled just slightly of both human and Deva. His eyes followed the digimon flying off, but his nose followed it even farther then his eyes were. "The digimon has Lopmon." Guilmon said.

"Hmmm?" Renamon said clearly startled by Guilmon's statement. They looked over and saw a Mushroomon walking up the road with a Budmon. Guilmon didn't wait for his mate to do anything else and took off in the direction that the digimon was flying. Renamon paused for a moment, Lopmon was her best friend, but their egg was at home and was due to hatch in a week or so, if she took off now, she might not make it back in a week, and someone needed to tell Terriermon. She saw Guilmon sprinting off in the distance. "By Azulongmon's Beard." She swore, "How does this kind of stuff happened." She said running in the direction of Guilmon.

Guilmon let his senses all fall into his nose and let instinct take over. He know had the conscious ability to do this, but it scared him a little, cause it felt a lot like when he was Megidramon. He never did understand why it was so bad when he was Megidramon, but Takato had instilled a fear into him of that Mega form, and that's all he needed to keep himself from going completely instinctual… well that and Renamon was about ten times the distraction when he was instinctual. He felt Renamon fall into running right next to him.

The two ran for an 3 hours, Growlmon lumbering along trying to keep the smell while Kyubimon was having no problem with the pace, which was no surprise since she did this kind of stuff everyday. Growlmon eventually came to a slow and his red eyes floated back to their regular Gold. He rambled through the woods with Kyubimon till he stopped. "He stopped." The red dragon said.

"Are you sure you just didn't lose the scent?" Kyubimon asked.

Growlmon nodded, "The scents still their… Lopmon's too." He said, "Just over this ridge." He said.

Kyubimon nodded, "I'll check it out." She said. While Growlmon did extremely well for tracking, he wasn't very good at be stealthy. She moved silently through the woods to the ridge… and hoped that they didn't have a Mega with them.

-

-

-

Terriermon looked at the clock. It was already one in the morning, and he was worried, neither Lopmon, Renamon nor Guilmon had come home. "Momentai Terriermon." He told himself, "Their probably just fine… theirs no need to worry." He told himself. He looked up at the clock again. "Why of all the nights." Terriermon said, "Why." He complained to no one. He sighed, he couldn't take this anymore. He went and grabbed a backpack and put the sleeping Dodomon in it with a bunch of pillows and blankets.

He walked outside and decided to head to the inn. When he got there he was surprised to S**orc**erymon they're looking around. "What's the keeper of the peace doing here?" Terriermon asked.

S**orc**erymon turned around, "Oh. Terriermon. What's the matter?" he asked, "Is Lopmon alright?" he asked.

"That's what I want to know." Terriermon told him.

"You mean Lopmon didn't come home?" the white wizard asked. Terriermon shook his head, "Then more then what I know went down here."

"What exactly went down here?" Terriermon asked.

"According to **F**loramon, two Mushroomon walked in after hours. Figuring they were up to no good, Lopmon asked them to leave. They refused and started to make advances. Lopmon attacked them with Blazing Ice and throw a chair at them." S**orc**erymon said pointing to the broken pieces of a chair, "then she told **F**loramon to run. She ran to the station, and we rushed over here and this is how we found it. Exactly the same as was when **F**loramon left. My problem is that I don't think that two Mushroomon could overpower Lopmon." He told the dog bunny.

Terriermon nodded, "I know theirs no way they could, not without some sort of trickery or deceit." He said.

S**orc**erymon nodded, "Well I've been looking around and I noticed a few things." He moved over to a spot on the entryway, "theirs a lot of fungus powder here. Which doesn't make sense if the Mushroomon where coming in through this door." He said.

Terriermon nodded, "unless Lopmon found a way to either counter their attack or block it before they were able to throw their mushrooms." He said.

"I figured as much, especially because right here, theirs energy residue from when a digimon de-digivolved." S**orc**erymon told him, indicating to the wall where the Mushroomon dedigivolved.

Terriermon thought for a moment, "so it obviously wasn't those two that made her disappear."

S**orc**erymon nodded, "you see why I'm puzzled about this case, cause theirs no evidence of a struggle except where the Mushroomon were."

Terriermon was worried, "Renamon and Guilmon are missing as well." The dog eared bunny told him.

"They left the city." S**orc**erymon told him, "I checked the logs on who left to see if Lopmon had left the city or if Tentomon had noticed anything unusual. He said that Guilmon and Renamon had booked it out of here around 10:00, like they were chasing something."

Terriermon thought about it, "I'm going to check with Renamon's work and see if she had a late night delivery." He told S**orc**erymon.

S**orc**erymon agreed, "That would be a good idea… I'm just curious to know why they booked it out of here right after the incident here, I'm wondering if Lopmon didn't get grabbed by a flying digimon and Guilmon recognized here smell. That boy has quite the nose."

Terriermon started to fret, "I'm worried… I'm going to go see Blo**ss**omon." He said. S**orc**erymon nodded and went to search the roof for any signs of a flying digimon attack.

Terriermon walked into Renamon's work, they were always open, but everything cost three times as much at night, so very few mons actually did anything. When he went in, Dodomon started to fidget in his backpack, so he brought the fresh out with his ears and rocked him slowly.

Blo**ss**omon was the one at the desk going through a bunch of papers, "oh, you're up early Terriermon. Sending another package to Gomamon?" she asked.

Terriermon shook his head, "no… I was wondering if you had Renamon doing a late night package, because she and Guilmon booked it out of here around 10." He told her.

Blo**ss**omon was surprised, "That Demi-**Devi**mon… he must have sold me out. He probably got them to pay him to tell them my plans… then they would come back for their kid once they were out of the radar." She said out loud.

"What are you talking about?" Terriermon asked cautiously, hanging on to Dodomon a lot harder.

Blo**ss**omon grinned, "Well… I couldn't have my two best revenues flaking out on me because of a child…so I bought some things off the black market to persuade them." She said evilly. Blo**ss**omon laughed manically as Terriermon stepped back. "And why am I telling you this… well I need that kid to make sure they come back to me… and I need a test subject for these devices." She said. She threw a Black Gear and Black Ring at him.

Terriermon went to dodge out of the way, but he knew if he tried, he would more then likely hurt little Dodomon. The Black Ring snapped around his neck and he felt the gear drill into him.

What happened next surprised him. He had always assumed that a Black Gear and Ring was just a virus that connected to the captured digimon and controlled them. It was far more complicated, yet more elegantly simple.

He had heard once from Gomamon, DMBX's brother that a Black object probably acted like a false core and connected to the digimon leaving all of their personality out of the equation. He was wrong.

Terriermon felt as his core was tapped by the objects and how they started shutting down and blocking off pieces of his core. He could feel the data of what might be called his "allegiance data" be cut off and dulled in many spots, so that the only thing he could grasp onto was allegiance to Blo**ss**omon. He felt as the objects started cutting his thought process down to only things that would be useful. He couldn't call up any of his jokes he had made, he couldn't call up any of the movies he watched, they came up as a blank. He felt as the Black devices flowed power thought his veins and started replaying instinctual data through him. He felt a desire of something, but he couldn't identify it anymore, but somehow he knew that if he did as Blo**ss**omon told him, he could fill that desire.

Terriermons eyes flickered open as the devices where in full effect. "You need something done?" he asked Blo**ss**omon. Blo**ss**omon just smiled, "Not quite yet… but make sure you're ready for a full day tomorrow."

"Would you like me to stay here or at my own place?" Terriermon asked.

"Stay here until we can get Renamon and Guilmon, then you three can go back to you're place." Blo**ss**omon told him.

"Momenti… I'm the best there is, it'll all work out." Terriermon said with emotion to his new master, he then carried Dodomon, who shied away from him, off to their new room.

-

-

-

Takato slumped out of bed onto the floor the next morning. He got up from the floor groggily and shut his alarm clock off. "Maybe I shouldn't have stayed up so late playing Digimon." he said to himself as he grabbed his towel. He had to force himself to keep his eyelids open, otherwise he would fall asleep standing, he had already experienced that last year when he slammed his head up against the desk corner. Ended up in the hospital for a week and eighteen stitches in his head.

He climbed into the shower and let the warm water run over him. He turned it down though as the water was making him sleepier. The lukewarm water woke him up a little bit more. He got out the shower and looked his face over. He popped a zit above his eyebrow. It bled a little so he wiped it away with a tissue. He grabbed the shaving cream out of the cupboard below and applied the cream. He started to shave, "Baihumon it!" Takato cursed as he cut himself. The gash was about two centimeters long. He cleaned it up and went to his room.

He went downstairs five minutes later, "Hey Takato?" his mom asked, "will start kneading that dough, we'll need it for the order today. A Thirty-five piece platter of Black Spire Digibread." she said.

Takato nodded. Ever since the D-reaper, his family had capitalized on the whole digimon phenomena and started to create even more digimon bread the just Guilbread. Within the first few weeks they had also created Terrierbread, Renabread, Cyberdrabread and Agubread. Within the next year, they not only had all of the rookie versions of each of the destined digimon, but their Champions, Ultimate's and Megas as well. They also had created the Champions, Ultimate's and Megas for each of the Tamers... well almost. No one had quite been sure what Impmon's Champion and Ultimate forms where, so they just Beelzemon... Beelzemon Blast Mode and Beelzemon's Bike, Behemoth.

That was just the beginnings and something that was done for fun for the most part. Then their started being orders for a Black Spire digimon series, (which were one of Takato's favorite, as the filling in them was Blackberry). Their was another order for The Dark Masters, so they created that, (suggestion... don't try the Piedmon Éclair... Takato's dad tried an experimental sauce for that one. It literally switches from a sweet taste to a bitter one with a spicy after taste. His dad thought it fit Piedmon's personality). They eventually started making even more different kinds of Digimon breads, and now their was over 300 different kinds. Their family hadn't had any money problems since the creation of the digibreads.

Takato started kneading the bread knowing that he would need to make a triple batch of Black Spire filling for the order alone, and then another a quadruple batch for the daily supply. His thoughts started to drift around like it always did when he was kneading bread. He thought about Rika, worried about Suzie and how she was doing. Of course being a jerk, (Half Jock, Half Nerd), his mind floated back to the Digimon game he was playing last night.

The story starts out two weeks after the defeat of MaloMyotismon, but for some reason it kept saying that Omegamon was the one who defeated him and not all the kids and Imperialdramon. He was confused on that part, but didn't bother with it too much and went on playing. In the first part of the game you played as Tai and Agumon. Since Oikawa gave up his life to protect the digital world, BlackWargreymon didn't have to seal the barrier anymore, and was released. Nobody knew what happened to him, so Tai and Agumon go off to find him. You go to File Island and talk to Elecmon. He says that he hasn't seen any digi-egg that could be BlackWarGreymon's, but tells you that he's not the only egg carer in the digital world and sends you off. From their you travel to another continent that isn't connected to a computer. It's also called the East Quadrant. Their, you find a digimon called Ghoulmon who tells you Black is currently in the South Quadrant. Then you meet Piedmon and Tai gets a New Digivice after a little sepal in which he risks his own life to save a SnowAgumons. With the New Digivice, which looks like the Crest of Courage, you become WarGreymon X and fight Piedmon again.

The battle wasn't too hard, but it was kind of a pain in the Tailmon to get used to using WarGreymon X as his fighting style was different from Wargreymons. After that Tai goes back to the real world after having been in the east quadrant for a week and half and learns that Joe and Gomamon had left to go and help heal digimon around the world. That's when the game play switches to Joe and Gomamon. That's where Takato had stopped playing last night. Thinking of the game reminded him how tired he was as he stayed up till one playing it.

Takato felt his eyes start to droop as his mind started to close down. The rhythmic motion of kneading the bread started to have an effect on him, especially since he could do it in his sleep. He rested his head on the cupboard above where he was kneading the bread.

Mrs. Matsuki came in ten minutes later to see Takato still kneading the bread. "I think that the dough is ready to be baked Takato." she said as she grabbed a pan out of the cupboard. She grabbed some bags of Blackberries out of the cupboard, "will you make six batches of the Black Spire mix, it's cloudy out, so people tend to buy the Black Spires more. I think it's because it's one of our warmest pastries we have." She said.

She turned around and noticed Takato hadn't moved from that position and was still kneading the bread. "Takato?" Mrs. Matsuki said worried. She stood their for a sec when she saw his eyes closed. She grinned a bit and slowly took the kneaded bread away and put some more dough in his hands. "Well...looks like I got myself an auto kneader." She said as Takato continued to kneed the new dough in his sleep. She chuckled at her own joke and let the kid sleep.

-

-

-

Henry was sitting underneath a tree where Terriermon used to reside above him. He was doing homework, same as when the bunny eared dog was with him, except now he could get it done about ten times faster then he used to. He finished up his math... he was taking Calculus II at the moment. He was a genius in math, or at least that's what everyone said. He sighed and looked around at the kids coming in. He spotted Kenta walking through with Jeri. He smiled at those two. They had clung to each other when they had digimon since they could protect the other one, while the rest of them were off with dealing with the more powerful digimon.

He always was amazed at how well those two fit together. Not like he thought Ryo and Alice fit together. He imagined Jeri and Kenta staying in contact all of their life, not together as a couple, but just always knowing the other one will be their in case something happens. The ultimate friendship he would call it. It made him think of the Tai-Sora-Matt triangle. Despite everything people said, he always thought that whoever didn't get Sora would still have that Ultimate friendship with the other two.

He looked around some more and found Kazu with his group of friends. Kazu startled him, because while yes, maybe he hadn't developed the bond some of the other Tamers had, he had depended and relied on Guardramon. Henry had confronted him a few times on why he gave up on digimon, but he never got a straight answer. What Henry could tell was that after he got past the rough exterior Kazu put on, he could tell Kazu was in denial. If digimon don't exist, then Guardramon doesn't exist so the pain he was feeling wasn't real. It was the only thing Henry could figure out.

His eyes traveled around a bit more when he spotted Suzie. Henry felt guilty as he watched her walk in all by herself. Henry got up early every day so he wouldn't have to be around his dad. He would then drop by Takato's place, grab a day old roll, help out for half and hour, then come to school in which he would do homework until the warning bell rung. He watched Suzie walk to the building; she walked like she always did lately, with no joy in her step. She had her head down as usual. As he watched her something stirred in him... a caring for his sister he had never experienced before. He's always protected her as much as he could from everything... yet he had never their been for her. Did she finally realize what he realized? "_Does she hate dad as much as I do?" _he asked softly to himself.

_Oh Suzie... what have done to you...?_ Henry wondered, as he recognized her attitude as his for the first year after the digimon left. _Here I've been so caught up in my own grief and hate that I haven't been their for you... Suzie... I'm so sorry... Can you ever forgive me?_ Henry sat their, unable to get up to go after the sister his heart was calling to. When the bell rang it snapped him out of his trance and he got up and went inside.

-

-

-

Jeri had fairly normal morning. It started with her talking to Kenta about the girls he was crushing on, which had made a good laugh for the both of them. Then came math, in which she struggled through yet again, but as usual Suzie was their helping her with the problems. She was kind of jealous of Suzie, as the young girl was not only in her class, but she was also taking the next class as well in the same semester. Not to mention the fact that she was three years younger then her.

After math came history... in which Henry got scolded for not paying attention... which almost dropped the jaw on everybody. The worst part... it happened four times. She wondered what was up with him; she hadn't seen him like this since the digimon left. She arrived at the lunch table to already see Takato sitting their.

She sat down, "wow Takato... you look tired, what time did you go to bed last night?"

"I don't know... I bought Digimon Aftermath yesterday and I stayed up playing it until I beat Tai's portion." Takato said with a yawn.

"You've already gotten past Tai's portion?" Kenta said coming in, "I've had that game for five days now and I still haven't gotten past his part."

Takato shrugged his shoulders, "it helps if you get Pepper Flare instead of Breath." Takato told him with another yawn.

Kenta looked up at him, "how do you do that?" he asked.

"Well, you go back to the piece of land that Tai was given by the strange old man." Takato said. "Their you can max out on apples and pears. Then if you go in to the house you can learn Pepper Flare from Agumo**n."**

**"**What's so great about Pepper Flare?" Jeri asked, "I just used Baby Burner." she said.

"So do I." Kenta complained, "But Agumon's speed isn't all that great, so it's kind of hard to get close enough to use it."

"So use Tai's soccer kick." Jeri said, "It gets him really close really fast."

"I'm not very good with Tai's soccer kick... and I've heard that while you can charge Pepper Flare and it has better range then Pepper Breath, it's still weaker." Kenta told them.

Takato chuckled, "obviously who ever you heard that from didn't use it for very long. The more you use it, the stronger it gets, so it eventually gets to the point that you can devastate rookies and armor's with no problems and you can take down champions as well."

Kenta opened his eyes wide, "whoa..."

Takato looked around, "hey... where's the Wong's?" he asked.

"Well Henry was a basket case in History, so the teacher had him stay after." Jeri told him, "and I haven't seen Suzie since first period."

Takato was surprised, "I just saw her during gym and their didn't seem to be anything bothering her... or at least not more then normal." Takato looked around worriedly for her. "I'm going to go look for her... you two try not to make out too much while I'm gone." he said casually.

Takato hobbled away a few moments later occasionally grabbing his left shin. Jeri had a satisfied grin on his face. "Nice kick... did you get lesson's from Rika or something?" Kenta asked.

"Actually... I got them from Suzie." Jeri said. Kenta raised his eyebrows again.

Takato muttered a few digimon curses as he looked for Suzie. Baihumon it... Jeri had a mean kick. He looked around in the hallways and ran into Kazu who acted tough around him when he asked if he had seen Suzie. "Why should I care about some little girl who thinks a cartoon show is real?" Kazu asked. Takato blew him off, which left Kazu perplexed and then Takato checked outside. He found Suzie outside playing Soccer... and kicking but at it as well.

Suzie wove in between two kids, passed it to one of her teammates, who passed it back and then she scored. Takato watched her for about five minutes... and found himself almost transfixed at the way she moved around the field so effortlessly, her lighter body streaming past everyone else, her hair catching the air. "You better make you're move quick." a voice said from behind him, "because I think she's also captured the attention of every other soccer player here wondering why she isn't on the team."

Takato recognized the voice, "Very funny Steven... I'm not going to ask my best friends little sister out." he told him, "but I'm wondering where she ever learned to play soccer and why she's out here anyways."

"I can't answer you those," Steven said, "but she was the last one picked for teams today. I can guarantee you that that's not going to be the case tomorrow." he told his friend. Takato looked over at his friend. Steven had been tamer even before Takato himself, he just lived on the outskirts of town then, and dealt with all of the digimon that bio-emerged their. He had also help fight the d-reaper, but not until it had gone through about three changes. By then it was so large that no one had any idea he was defending it with Alice and Minami by his side supporting him with cards and such. The three had made such a great team that with one digimon they where able to hold the d-reaper back and keep it from advancing at the same rate as in other areas. However his Tyranomon ended up reverting to a digi-egg eventually after giving it his all. Somehow being a digitama prevented him from being taken back to the digital world with the rest of the digimon. He hadn't hatched in the three years since the d-reaper though... and no one was willing to go to the adults about it. They had too many bad experiences with adults since the d-reaper.

Takato watched Suzie as she continued to play, snaking around a senior. As he watched her, she looked over very briefly and their eyes met. Takato understood what was behind those eyes in that moment. Sorrow... hate. Even more then what he had seen in Henry's eyes, and he understood for just a moment what the Wong's had to go through. Here their dad took away the most precious thing to them besides each other. Suzie continued playing, scoring another three goals by the end of lunch.

-

-

-

Takato was talking to Steven waiting for homeroom to start. He noticed Henry come in at the last minute almost being tardy. The kid took his seat looking over at Suzie. Takato saw worry in his eyes, and decided now was a bad time to get on Henry's bad side. He just hoped Suzie wouldn't be the recipient of it either. He could tell that girl was going to snap sometime relatively soon.

"Alright... everybody calm down." Mrs. Asagi said as the class started to shush up. She looked over the class, "their are no announcements today... however, I don't want any pranks pulled today." She said glaring at Kenta.

Takato grinned as he got away with another perfect prank... and didn't even get caught.

"Now... this is not official," Mrs. Asagi told the class, "but next semester... we may have a class on digimon."

The class started to start talking immediately.

"QUIET!" Mrs. Asagi yelled. "However... it is not official... and the requirements to get in the class are Very Strict." she said as the class calmed down immediately. "You must have had Pre-Calculus, Advanced Computer Programming and Technological history."

Takato cursed under his breath. He had taken both Advanced Computer Programming and Technological history as Digimon had been including in both... but he was only in Algebra II now... which meant he couldn't get into the class until he was a Senior.

"However... all the Tamers have free ride into this class... since Suzie and Henry would be the only one's actually qualified." Mrs. Asagi said.

"You know... for not being official... you sure know a lot about it." Steven said.

Mrs. Asagi was about to say something when a strange sound went off in the class. The tamers looked on to another and booked it out of the class.

They were out of the school in less then a minute when Steven got a lock on the position. "It's coming from the direction of my house." he said as the ran towards the spot.

Henry looked at his D-arc. He grabbed a card from his hand, "Digi-Modify!" He called, "Open Hand!" he said as he swiped the card through his deck. He looked at the distance, "Takato!" he said.

"It's coming from the tunnel... I know." Takato said.

Henry was puzzled at how he knew, but kept running.

Takato noticed that Suzie had fallen behind some and was struggling to catch up. He slowed his pace until he was right next to Suzie. "Is it them?" Suzie asked.

Takato shook his head, "no... Are D-ark's would have gone off differently." he said. He stopped and motioned for her to climb on his back. She did and Takato ran and caught up with the others.

"Hey... why are we running their?" Kenta asked, "It's not our partners, and we don't know if the digimon are good or bad." he said.

Jeri smiled at him, "we just have to take a chance... this is our first shot and hearing some word of them... and I'll run till I'm dead if it let me have the comfort then that none of our digimon had met the same fate as Leomon." she said.

Takato was finally in the lead while carrying Suzie on his back. Henry felt a stab of guilt seeing his sister being taken care of somebody else. "Besides." Takato said in a serious tone. "We're Tamers... are job is to protect our world from digimon that want to destroy it... even if that world that we're protecting has turned it's backs on us." he said, "Besides... we can't let Rika take the digimon on all on her own." he said grinning.

Henry nodded; he looked down at his D-arc, "Goburimon..." he said.

Kenta looked around, "did it occur to anybody else that we just booked it out of school?"

"Scwew the School," Suzie said from Takato's back, "We've got money." She said.

Henry shook his head as they all laughed.

-

-

-

Riley looked at readings as Yamaki was driving to the point. Rika looked over her shoulder while Seiko Nonaka sat in the front seat. "It's almost refreshing to hear this sound." Riley told Yamaki.

The former Hypnos CEO nodded, "what quadrant are they from?" he asked.

"East." Riley said, "We've got eight of them... seven Goburimon and one Ogremon." she said.

Yamaki pressed his sunglasses up, "you think you're ready?" he asked Rika.

"Are you that thickheaded?" Rika asked.

Yamaki smiled, "I just hope the rest of them are as prepared as you are." As he pressed the speed limit.

Seiko said nothing as she watched the road.

-

-

-

Alright... so some thing's first.

Betamon X: Concerning digimon mating... this is not the same as humans... Gomamon could give you the details to it, but I'll give you the overview. It's done through the mouth in which data flows into both digimon... but more into the Female digimon and if the data complies which each other... an egg will start to form.

Gomamon: alright... next subject... Cameo's... What... so where Cameoing a few people here. We'll be doing it mostly through the game Digimon Aftermath, but we'll have a few others as in where Terriermon talks about DMB here and me. Tell me if you spot any Cameo's... and we'll put you're name up next time.

Let's see... for all of you who didn't just come over from my last two stories... Agu**mon**, is a different Agumon then Agumo**n**... and so forth. This is how Digimon are named in my story... it's where the emphasis is put in the name.

So I still don't know exactly where I'm going with this story... but I have a rough idea... so if you guys have any suggestions please let me know... I could really use them. And thank you to Crazyeight for you're usual review... and thanks for everyone else who reviewed, and I hope you'll continue to review through the rest of the chapters. Thanks later.

P.S Betamon X: Sorry about the name change... what... we can't have a story not named Echo... it just wouldn't be us.

Gomamon: (covers face with paw) Pathetic.


	3. Chapter Three  EXiled

Dragon Echo

Chapter 3

E**X**ile

Rika looked at her D-Ark. She had sprinted out of school when Yamaki, Riley and her Grandma picked her up on her way to the park. She knew that Renamon wasn't their… but even if the digimon there could give her some idea of what Renamon was doing… that would be a start.

She watched as they came upon the tunnel with the rest of the Tamers running to it.

-

-

Takato, Rika, Suzie, Henry, Kenta, Jeri, Steven, Yamaki, Riley and Seiko stood on the edge of the digital field.

"What happens now?" Kenta asked.

Yamaki stared at his Laptop that he carried with him, "8 Digimon… and it's too late to use Yuggoth."

Riley handed a pistol to Seiko. Yamaki had one in his pocket. "Electromagnetic bullets." Seiko asked.

Riley nodded, "it's the only way you can actually deal damage to a digimon with conventional firearms." She said.

"But wouldn't the bullets be stuck together inside the gun?" Henry asked.

"The magnetism triggers two milliseconds after it fires." Yamaki said.

"Does the government have this kind of technology?" Rika asked.

Yamaki grinned, "No… because they have no clue the true power of digimon." He said, "However I'm sure they have something more powerful then Yuggoth to combat any that will show up through our quadrant when the seal breaks." He said.

Jeri looked at the field, "So all we can do is wait for the field to dissipate?" she asked.

Yamaki looked up from his Laptop, "I'm sorry… I'm not going to trust you're guys' lives with Goburimon." He said.

Takato understood and looked at the field. He stared at it and thought he saw a flash of light. He put on his goggles… which Yamaki had upgraded for him.

"You see anything unusual?" Yamaki asked.

"Does another Digimon count as unusual?" Takato asked.

Yamaki lifted his eyebrows, "hmmm… I was wondering if the reader was off." He said.

"A digimon that's not a Goburimon?" The Goggleheaded kid asked.

"What?" Yamaki said.

"And the scanner's not picking it up." Takato said, talking about the digimon scanner Yamaki had installed into his goggles along with the ability to strip the digital data away, Rika was fairly mad at that one since the same thing had happened to her on national television.

Yamaki opened up the camera program he had set into Takato's goggles. "By Azulongmon's Beard." He swore.

Riley fiddled with another scanner, "Sir… that digimon is made of either weak data… or has more proteins then we thought possible."

Suzie listened to them, but came up with her own conclusion. If their was another digimon in their… it might know something about Lopmon. She ran into the fog.

"Suzie don't!" Henry cried as she ran into the field. He started to follow after her when Takato grabbed him.

"Henry… this field isn't a normal field… their's no eye in the middle without fog." Takato told him. "You'll be stumbling around blindly."

"Suzie's in their!" Henry yelled at his friend.

Takato let go of Henry, "Seiko?" he asked. She nodded and threw him the gun Riley had given her; Takato caught it and went into the fog to find Suzie.

Yamaki almost flipped as Takato went in. "What are you thinking?" he asked Seiko in a fit of rage.

"I'm thinking about Suzie's safety… now unless you have another pair of Goggles on you… all we can do is trust that Takato will take care of her." Seiko said.

Yamaki gritted his teeth, "Why is it that I always have to trust the fate of the world to kids."

"Maybe it's because it's fated?" Kenta said. Jeri laughed as Yamaki glared at the young kid. Kenta shied away.

-

-

-

Ryudamon leapt back as the Goburimon swung his club at her. "You guys sure followed me a long ways just to eliminate me." She said as she got into a stance with one claw one the ground.

The Ogremon growled, "We'll follow you to the Dark Zone if it meant destroying you X's."

Ryudamon glared, "I've already been eXiled and you guys still don't think that enough?" she said. "I've been running for my life because a bunch of Goburimon want to seem tough by taking out the X's… that is pathetic." She said.

"We'll see who's pathetic when you're data is downloaded by us." The Goburimon told her. The Goburimon ran up and slammed his club into the ground where Ryudamon stood three seconds ago.

"What's the matter… you have yet to fight us… scared you're going to get wasted?" The Goburimon taunted.

"Why should I play a ten when I can play a four?" Ryudamon asked, she then noticed some movement coming in from behind her. It was a young human girl holding her hand above her eyes.

"Hey…are their any digimon in here?" she called as she slowly walked through the digital mist.

The Ogremon was surprised, "A humon? You've taken us to the Humon world?!" he roared at Ryudamon.

"Yeah… I didn't think you would be stupid enough to follow." Ryudamon shot back at them.

The Goburimon roared in a fit of rage and one ran towards the girl. Ryudamon moved fast and intercepted the attack, "_Kabuto Kenshi!"_ she cried as the club slammed off her head and she slammed her feet into the Goburimon causing him to go stumbling back, "_Iajin!" _She shouted as metal spike flew out of her mouth and stabbed itself into the stumbling Goburimon. He fell back and digitamasized.

"You alright?" Ryudamon asked the girl landing near her.

"Lopmon… do you know Lopmon?" the girl asked frantically.

Ryudamon raised her eyebrow. Who was this girl, and yes she knew Lop**mon**, but she didn't know Lopmon. "Sorry… doesn't ring a bell." Ryudamon said as she turned back to the gang of Goburimon to see one have a club right above her head.

"Die X!" he cried as he brought his club swinging down. The Goburimon stumbled back mid-step as two soft little sounds rang out. He landed on all fours and digitamasized.

"Back off." Another human said. Ryudamon looked up at him, and there was something familiar about him, but she just couldn't quite put her finger on it. She shrugged off the thought and turned her attention to the Goburimon who were whispering among themselves.

Takato grabbed Suzie, "Lopmon… does anybody know Lopmon?!" Suzie cried.

"Suzie." Takato said to softly getting on his knees, she turned and cried into his shoulder. He was taken back for a moment, and then patted her back. Ryudamon glared at a Goburimon who tried to get closer. Takato looked at the Goburimon, many who were ready for a fight. "Suzie… Lopmon isn't here… be a big girl now." He told her as her shaking started to stop, "I'm going to point you in the direction of Henry, and I want you to run out to him." He said.

Suzie slowly nodded, and Takato put her in position to run out and gave her a little shove. Suzie ran as hard and fast as she could and came bursting out of the field straight to Henry and grabbed him around the neck determined to never let him leave her like Lopmon had.

Takato turned around, "thanks for watching my back….?" He said ending in a question.

"Ryudamon." She said.

"You're name doesn't matter," the Ogremon said, "cause you'll be dead with in a few minutes as well as you…you filthy humon."

"An enemy of mine and an enemy of your's makes us allies." Ryudamon said.

"Works for me." Takato said as he lifted up his silenced gun.

Yamaki was a worried mess as he watched through Takato's eyes on the advancing digimon. His only help was a digimon that Yamaki couldn't get any data on. That was bugging him almost worse then the fact that Takato was facing off a bunch of mad Goburimon. 

He looked at everybody else. They were all restless and staring into the fog. He looked down back to his screen as Takato fired another shot.

The Ogremon was stunned as the next Goburimon fell and digitamasized. Ryudamon had launched her attack, which the Goburimon blocked easily, but as he brought his club away from his face a bullet tore through his head. "How is it that you're conventional weapons hurt us? They should NOT!" The Ogremon roared.

"Electromagnetic?" Ryudamon asked as the two continued to back up away from the gang.

Takato nodded as a Goburimon got mad and ran up ahead of the rest of the gang. He swung at Ryudamon, but she ducked under his attack and slammed her back into him causing him to fly onto the ground. Takato then shot him. Ryudamon turned around to face the gang again when a Goburimon's club collided with her face sending her flying back next to Takato.

"You alright?" Takato said with his gun still trained on the digimon. Ryudamon got up and nodded, but her vision started to slur, she backed away slowly as the remaining three advanced.

Takato gritted his teeth, he only had two shots left and their was three of them. He looked over at Ryudamon, and noticed that data was starting to dissolve out of her head. He grabbed her up and booked it for the end of the barrier, with the Goburimon and Ogremon hot on his tail. He sprinted through the end, and as the three digimon came raging through, eight electro-magnetic shots found their way into the digimon and they turned into digitamas swearing on Ebowumon.

Takato collapsed on the ground from exhaustion as his adrenaline started to run out. He looked at the gun he held in his hand, and threw it up against the wall as hard as he could, shattering it.

Yamaki however was not focused on Takato, but on the wounded digimon he had just set down.

-

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-

It was twenty minutes later when all of the kids flopped out of the car. It was a four seater, and they managed to fit in ten… not very comfortably at all. The four boys where squashed in their, then the girls had to sit on their laps. Yamaki, Riley and Seiko sat upfront.

"I can feel my legs." Kenta said as he got out of the car, "Their still their! Thank Baihumon."

The kids chuckled at Kenta's exasperation. Yamaki grabbed Ryudamon out of the trunk and into the garage they had. He carried her in and the kids followed without saying anything. Henry held Suzie's hand giving her comfort.

They followed Yamaki past a receptionist desk where Dolphin was sitting looking at a computer. He glanced up, and saw the Digimon Yamaki was carrying it. "Did we get a better catch then we had hoped?" he asked.

Yamaki shook his head, "we won't know until he wakes up, and since he's injured we don't know how long that's going to be."

Dolphin looked to the kids, "hey… hope you guys didn't get you're hopes up too much."

"It hit Suzie hard." Henry said squeezing his little sister's hand. She stared at the floor. Dolphin looked over the group and saw that Takato was more solemn then everybody else.

He opened up the door, "I'll handle the paperwork." He said as he opened up some files. Yamaki nodded and they went forward. Seiko took the kids into a room overlooking a lab while Yamaki brought Ryudamon into the lab.

"How did Yamaki build all of this?" Henry asked looking around.

"He used you're guys money." Seiko said.

Kenta was confused, "Our money… what did he somehow take our allowance." He joked.

"Actually you guys had over 2.4 trillion yen." Seiko told them.

"I had wondered about that." Henry questioned, understanding what Rika's grandma was talking about.

"You know guys; it's not a very good joke." Jeri told them, "were not all desperately after money…" she looked over Kenta, who had his mouth hanging open by her statement, "like I said, were not _all_ desperate for money."

"Their not joking, Jeri," Rika said, "I made sure we each got our cut, all of us, even Ai and Mako, have an account of ten million yen. The rest Yamaki's used for our benefit."

"To find a way to bring back the digimon." Takato expressed in quiet statement.

"But where did it come from?" Kenta asked.

"Grants, Scholarships, advertising rights, and donations among other stuff I would presume?" Henry asked Seiko.

"You're correct." Seiko said, "A lot of the money has been used up though, in making this facility, funding Yamaki's research and putting some laws into place, as of current, the total money invested is only 1.5 trillion yen. Yamaki uses mostly just the interest now of days, since a lot of the big stuff has been paid for."

Kenta couldn't believe this, "all the stuff I could have." He said glossy eyed.

-

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-

Ryudamon stared at the digimon in the distance, they were coming. Gaiomon stood next to her. "Run." The mega digimon said.

"I won't leave you!" Ryudamon stated.

Tai grinned from inside the mega, "She has her mom's stubbornness." He said to BlackAgumon.

"I don't think that's necessarily a good thing." Black shot back. Tai understood his new partners fear.

Gaiomon got down next to Ryudamon, "I'll be fine, but if you get caught, they'll rip you to shreds." He said, "they won't let you're egg be reborn… please…run." He said tenderly.

Ryudamon felt a tear stream down out of her eye, she understood the love that Black had for her, and "We'll see each other again… won't we?" She asked.

Gaiomon was silent. Ryudamon hugged her uncle. Agumon took her hand "Let's go." He whispered softly, not wanting to interrupt the moment. Ryudamon let Agumon lead her away. Gaiomon watched them go.

"You didn't answer her." Tai let the words pierce Black.

"She's not mine to see." Black told his partner as Gaiomon grabbed his two swords and leapt towards the incoming digimon.

"You have more Honor then anybody I have seen, yet you're quick to stab somebody in the back… why?" Tai asked.

Black was silent, "I've got a Niece to protect." He growled as the two blades gleamed in the light. The incoming Ultimate level digimon charged.

Ryudamon sprinted alongside Agumon for a good thirty minutes. They could here some digimon coming close behind them when they finally reached the desert.

"Alright… at the end of the desert is the South Quadrant." Agumon said, "Their quadrant was just devastated, so they should be a little bit more accepting.

"I know." Ryudamon said, "I was the one who had said I should go their." Agumon was taken back.

"You're right… be careful, I'll try to stop as many as I can, but they might still come after you." He said. He then hugged her and looked into her eyes. He nudged her head down and kissed her on the gem on her head, "be safe my daughter." He said. He turned around and headed into the forest where the yells of some digimon could be heard.

Ryudamon paused for a second; she turned around and sprinted across the dark desert, not having time to think about Agumon's last words. The Goburimon followed close behind.

-

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-

The young X digimon awoke from her dream in a cold sweat. She shivered and got off the metal bed. She looked around and saw a clock that said 2:28. She mused that thought over, _how long had she slept_? She wondered. She walked around the room to see multiple machines around, recognizing the purpose of a lot of them. She saw what looked like a note and read.

_Dear Ryudamon, _

_Not sure if you can read or not. We've sent most everyone home already; when you wake up, just go though the door on the far right. One of us should be waiting for you._

_Yamaki_

Ryudamon mulled the note over. She recognized the name Yamaki. He was one of the reason's she had decided to flee to the south quadrant, he had the best understanding of digimon of all the humans that she researched into in all the quadrants. She went over to the door and opened it. There, a tall red head human was waiting for her.

"Hello." Riley said, "I'm Riley."

"Ryudamon." The rookie stated bowing.

Riley was taken back for a second; she hadn't expected the digimon to be so formal. "Theirs some tests I would like to run right now… if you don't mind." She said.

"Go for it… did I really sleep for twenty six hours?" she asked cautiously.

Riley chuckled as she got down on her knees to the digimon's height, "no… only fourteen." The red head said. She felt the young digimon's nose where the Goburimon had slammed his club into her. "It looks like everything healed up on the outside." She said, "Tell me if you feel any pain, I need to check for internal damage."

Ryudamon was grateful, "You really know what you're doing… don't you?" she asked as Riley pushed on different parts of her muzzle.

"Not really." Riley said moving up to the digimon's forehead, "we haven't had a digimon here in three years, and I didn't have a need to learn about healing digimon back then, so all of my methods is based off data meant for a different purpose." She pressed near the gem and Ryudamon forehead.

"Wow." Ryudamon said.

Riley got up, "That gem of you're is made up of a different kind of data, more so then the rest of you're body, I don't know if we can heal it."

Ryudamon looked up at her, "That's because that's where the X virus originates."

"Will it heal on its own?" Riley asked.

Ryudamon shrugged, "I don't know, I've only been a rookie for two weeks."

"I know, we ran some scans while you were healing."

Ryudamon let out a small laugh, "I take it you need my signature too run some more tests, well, as long as Yamaki's running the show, go for it."

Riley was taken back, "how do you know Yamaki?" she asked surprised at this digimon's knowledge.

"I did my research, he was one of the main reason's I fled to the South quadrant human world."

Riley shook her head, this digimon was completely unlike any they had ever seen before. She led the digimon into the next room where Yamaki, Henry, Suzie and Rika were waiting. The rest had gone home… those three were allowed to stay as they had a family member working with Yamaki who could give them the ok.

"Ryudamon." Yamaki said bowing to the young rookie digimon.

"Yamaki." The digimon said bowing back.

"It's a pleasure to have you here in the South Quadrant's human world." Yamaki told the young rookie.

Ryudamon bowed, "I thank you for sheltering me here."

Yamaki didn't smile at that comment, he kept his face cool, "This is," He said indicating to the tamers,

"Rika Nonaka, the digimon queen," Ryudamon said honored and interrupting Yamaki. "Henry Wong, the tamer who defeated the d-reaper and Suzie Wong, the human who tamed the sovereigns own Deva." She said just amazed to be in the presence, "I'm honored, truly to be able to meet you." She bowed to the three.

The three of them didn't know what to make of it; they hadn't been honored like this for two and a half years. Rika was the first to snap out of it. She knelt on one knee, "It too, is truly an honor to be able to meet you too, Ryudamon."

Ryudamon was taken back at the gesture… she was nothing more then a lowly X… and yet this human… this Tamer of legends was bowing to her. She felt ashamed. "Please don't…. I'm not worthy of such an honor." She whispered.

Rika was surprised to hear the digimon's response and got up. Her Grandma whispered into her ear, "She's a digimon that was made from the data of the ancient Samurai ways… don't take offense of it."

Rika understood, but still felt guilty at making Ryudamon feel guilty.

Yamaki broke the tension, "please Ryudamon, we would like to know you're story, but before, would you tell us, do you know anything of their partner's?"

Ryudamon thought for a moment, understanding the young girls, which she now knew was Suzie, pleas about Lopmon. "I'm sorry, all I knew is rumor."

"Please… anything." Rika asked, knowing how much pain this was causing the Wong's, "anything you know would be of comfort."

Ryudamon understood the girl's pleas, and was humbled by the fact that this great hero would not only kneel before her, but also plead with her when she was nothing more then an X. "I've heard rumor's… MarineAngemon and Guardramon are running a hospital, and are almost as fabled as the Ocean Healer… Impmon is trafficking in black-market trade… Come to think of it I've seen Cyberdramon." She said, "he's become a protector of EXiled… he told me that he just did it because that's were the most battles were to be fought."

Yamaki chuckled, _No surprise their_. He thought, still he was disturbed about the fact that X's were so hated in the digital world… did the X virus somehow destroy a digimon's core to the point they couldn't be reborn?

"As for the others… I have heard nothing. I'm sorry." The rookie said sorrowful.

"It's something." Seiko said, "I would imagine the other four settled down in a little town somewhere."

The three tamer's nodded, slightly disappointed that nothing was known of their digimon. Yamaki brought the attention back to Ryudamon, "I've got a few question's, if you don't mind answering them tonight." He said.

"You want to know about the X virus?" Ryudamon asked. Yamaki nodded. "I don't know much about it… mostly because their's not a lot known about it. It's a virus that replaces key parts of a digimon's data, wire framing and core, in theory in enhances the strength of a digimon."

"Their's a problem though." Henry stated.

Ryudamon confirmed that, "Yeah…you might call it a problem. The problem is, that their's gaps in the data. Places where a one or zero should be, yet their's nothing, or at least nothing anybody knows about." 

"I got a copy of the data of you gem…" He said as one of the screens came on.

100 1 010 01 0 0110 011 1 011 1011 1 00 01 001 0 01 0110 10 101 100

"You're saying those gaps should have numbers in them?" Rika asked.

"Yeah… what you're looking at is the x virus itself their." Ryudamon answered.

"But wouldn't that cause the data to fall in on itself?" Henry asked worried.

"Yeah… that's why it's such a killer." Ryudamon said.

"So how is it that you are alive?" Riley asked.

"Their's something called the X-antibody. It's a code that also has blank spaces, but it adapts a digimon's data so that the X virus doesn't collapse on itself." Ryudamon said.

Yamaki looked over at Rika's grandmother, "What are you thinking, Seiko?" he asked.

Seiko said nothing, but everyone watched as she went over to the whiteboard where the code was showing.

100X1XX010X01X0XX0110X011X1XXXXX011X1011X1X00X01X001XX0X01X0X10XX10X101X100

"I think those variables may mean a coding that's pulled from somewhere else." She said.

"Which would make sense," Yamaki said, "On why the X-antibody fixes it."

"We come upon one problem though." Ryudamon said, "The X-antibody also has missing spots… and digimon can survive with the X-antibody and not the X virus."

"Which means they're not pulling off each other's data?" Henry questioned/stated.

Yamaki sat their for a moment thinking, "We'll deal with it later, for now, why don't you tell us you're story." He told Ryudamon.

She took a deep breath, "Alright… I don't remember much when I was just a freshling. Mostly I just know what Agumon(Black)'s told me, I was an abandoned egg. This is not uncommon in digimon tradition, except I wasn't left at Primary Village. According to Black, Kudamo**n** and Commandramo**n **found me one day. Their not mates, but they are with each other all the time.

"Well, I grow up with them when I was still just a fresh. I don't remember much, except how caring Kudamo**n** was and how protective Commandramo**n **was. If I think hard, I can still remember Kudamo**n**'s caring touch and soft lullaby's. However a war broke out in the north quadrant. A big one and a lot of digimon where using it as an excuse to pillage, plunder and rape. Kudamo**n** and Commandramo**n** wanted to help calm it down, but they couldn't with me. So they made the journey to the east quadrant to find a digimon to give me too.

Ryudamon let her thoughts drift for a second back to her "parents". She had remembered the journey over with them. "I had digivolved to KyoKyomon by that time. Unfortunately, the East Quadrant had just had an epidemic of the X virus, when a digimon with the X-antibody born into them arrived. His name was Gran**drac**mon." Suzie's sat up immediately. "No, he was not the Gran**drac**mon of old, but he was still a Grandracmon. This was before we had arrived, but it took Gaiomon, WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon X, Pheonixmon X, and Magnadramon to take him down. They finally beat him when MagnaAngemon banished him to the Dark Zone.

"He had been defeated for four years, but the terror that the X demon caused was unimaginable, and soon afterwards, most of the east quadrant became fanatical in a fear of X's. We were hated and feared, a lot of X's are being killed, and a lot our fleeing like me. However, Kudamo**n** and Commandramo**n** decided it was probably not a good idea to let me stay in Primary Village, so they searched for a digimon who would take care of us.

"One day however, a group of anti X's came upon us. Kudamo**n **and Commandramo**n **fought the best they could, but they couldn't take on three Ultimate level digimon and two megas. That's when he appeared… BlackWarGreymon… he told the group to get lost. The told him to eat Numemon poo, and Cyberdramon landed right beside him and told them it wasn't a good idea for them to piss Black off. Their was four more digitamas after that day.

"Black took me in, and I lived with him until I became a rookie two weeks ago, when I decided to leave, so I wouldn't put Black in any more trouble." Ryudamon said.

"Why did BlackWarGreymon take you in?" Riley asked, "He doesn't seem to be one to do stuff just for the heck of it."

"He was mostly BlackAgumon most of the time… he had the ability to Warp digivolve." Ryudamon told her, "However, I did ask him the same question. He told me that he too was an outsider. He was a Black Spire digimon with a core. The only one too. I asked what he meant, because I had read about Black Spires and the creation of false digimon. He had snorted, then said,

"Ryudamon… their's no such thing as a false digimon… if their where, you and I would be ones. What makes a digimon is not what their data is, whether their Vaccine, Virus, Data, X, not an X, Rookie, Mega, DNAed, or anything else you can think of. What makes a digimon is that their willing to fight for a purpose. Black Spire digimon have no core, so they have no purpose according to most digimon. Yet, their purpose was to serve Arukenimon. And here I stand, made up of the same thing as false digimon, and I have a core… You're lucky in a way; you know who you are…"

"He had a lot of time to think." Ryudamon said softly, "Life wasn't about fighting to him; a lot of nights were spent with him looking off into space and with my nose in a book."

Henry looked and Rika, their eyes met and they were thinking the same thing.

Yamaki got up, "I do have a lot of other questions for you, but take a nights rest." He said, "Riley, will you show him to his room."

"I'm a female." Ryudamon told Yamaki glaring. Yamaki stumbled over himself.

Their was an uneasy silence over the room, "I'm sorry… please accept my apology." Yamaki pleaded.

Ryudamon laughed and Riley led her to her room. Seiko took the sleepy Suzie to a room where she would stay the night until Seiko took her to her house the next morning. Yamaki also left leaving Rika and Henry in the room by themselves.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Henry asked.

"Could Black really be BlackWargreymon from the show?" Rika asked.

"Their's too many coincidences for him not to be," Henry said, "I've wondered for awhile now if the show wasn't real."

"You're talking about the quadrants theory." Rika stated.

"Yeah… in the show it talked about the four quadrants, the Phoenix to the south, the Dragon to the west, the Turtle to the east and the Tiger to the north."

"And we've met all four… and we have the Phoenix… Yamaki's known this for awhile." The red head stated.

"Yeah… their's a few other things I'm curious about… Ryudamon didn't finish her story… how did she get here. She obviously knows a lot too, I imagine a lot of that comes from having to hide and not be able to do much other then read, but still… she learned and understood all of the things Yamaki talks about with ease." Henry said curiously. He sat down while Rika still stood.

"So the T.V show was real…" Rika let the sentence drift off.

"Not quite." Henry said, "Remember Aftermath." He asked.

"Yeah, I've played it three times over."

"Well… their's a lot of things that would fit our theory coming out of that game… one is that it fixes the anomaly of the show. It keeps saying that it was Omegamon that beat MaloMyotismon… and you'll notice it never mentions Imperialdramon FM, and when it should, it replaces him with Omegamon."

"You're saying that Imperialdramon FM doesn't exist?" Rika asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying… he's something Bandai made up." Henry said, "A Fan based digimon."

Rika thought about that… "Wait a minute… In Tai's part of the game, he goes to the east quadrant… and then at the end of the game, everyone goes to the east quadrant…"

"And beats Gran**drac**mon."

"Oh" Rika said startled, "… wait a second… Joe crossed the Dark Ocean… whatever happened to him, I don't understand why the game just dropped him." Rika said.

Henry contemplated that thought. His eyes went wide, "Oh by Baihumon… Joe came to our quadrant!" he said.

Rika's eyes went wide, "are you sure… maybe the dark ocean contacts to the north quadrant and the Black Desert to ours. 

Henry shook his head, "No… I've checked maps of the digital world; they both connect to our quadrant, the Dark Ocean from the west and the Black Desert from the east."

"So Joe's in our quadrant… that means we could take the long way around, cross the Black Desert, go through the east and west quadrant to the dark ocean and get into the digital world." Rika said with a hint of hope in her voice.

"We would never make it… but still… we do have that option. You know, no one else in our group is going to believe a word of this."

Rika's mind raced for a second more. "Ryo!" she exclaimed furious. Then she arched as her back as it filled with pain. "AHHH!" she shouted landing on the ground.

"Rika!" Henry said running over to her.

Yamaki burst in, closely followed by Seiko. "Riley!" Yamaki barked into his phone, "I want a full analysis of what just happened."

"Sir… a large stream of data broke through the barrier and slammed into her… according the level of the data stream… I think Renamon may have just snapped her wire framing in 3 places."

"By Azulongmon's beard." Yamaki swore as Seiko called 911.

-

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-

Kyubimon peered over the hill to see three digimon sitting their. One was a Devidramon… that looked oddly familiar. Then their was a Demi-Devimon. "Impmon?" Kyubimon said softly. She listened to their conversation.

"I don't know." Impmon said, "Dealing in illegal artifacts is one thing, but kidnapping is a whole nother thing."

"What to be so scared about?" Demi-**Devi**mon asked.

"About fifty years in the Dark Zone." Impmon stated.

"Besides, it's not like we're going to rape her." Demi-**Devi**mon said, "Besides, this one's going to make us a load of money. At least three hundred grand." 

Impmon's eyes lit up, "Who on earth could you have captured that would get us that much money… Gatomon?" He asked.

Demi-**Devi**mon laughed, "No… but pretty close." He opened the bag to reveal a sleeping Lopmon with her arms, ears, and legs bound and a piece of tape over her mouth.

Impmon gasped at the sight, "Pretty little thing isn't she… not only that, but she's also had a human Tamer and worked for the Sovereign."

Impmon went silent immediately.

Kyubimon started crawl backwards when a tree turned into a Woodmon and slammed its arm into her back causing her to fall onto the ground in agonizing pain.

Growlmon was restless when he heard his Mate's cries. He sprinted up the hill, "DRAGON SLASH!" he shouted shattering the Woodmon into a digitama instantly.

The commotion alerted the three viruses from below and D**evi**dramon laid his eyes on Growlmon. "YOU!" He roared, and shot towards Growlmon, "YOU READY FOR ROUND TWO… DRAGON!"

Guilmon faced the oncoming opponent, his eyes filled with Bloodlust and Rage, every ounce of his data was being pushed aside so that the Demon and Dragon Rage could fill his body. He only knew one thing… Renamon was hurt lying on the ground… and someone was going to pay. He let out an ear screeching roar that filled the digital world.

Lopmon was startled by the sound and woke up… "No… no… GUILMON… DON'T!" She shouted through her taped mouth, but even if he could hear her, she knew he wouldn't listen. "Not again… the roar… no."

Impmon felt dread flail through his body… Pineapple head was roaring the echo of Megidramon… all strength when out of the young rookie's body.

-

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-

Alright… so sorry about getting it up so late… I do have an excuse though… I got my front two teeth kicked, down, and out so they were pointing forwards hanging on by my braces. They were ripped out of Root and all… so add that with Vicadin and all the homework I had to make up… yeah… you understand.

Betamon X: alright… for those of you who are worried that we're going to be adding a bunch of new characters can relax… we have only a few characters left to introduce and only one character left to decide who it shall be.

Gomamon: In the next chapter you'll see three new characters (four if you count the digimon and human)… and that will be it for newbie's. Two will be Oc's that you'll recognize if you've been hanging with us for awhile.

Betamon X: the next character that you'll see is Yamshowzu… the reason we are adding him is because we need a human antagonist. You'll recognize him as our usual human antagonist… except this time… well, lets just say Yamaki's going to kick his but.

Gomamon: and he'll be a little different then before. As for the next character… he fits the profile of the Bad guy who's really the good guy doing stuff for his own gain, thus making him a bad guy… if you've read our previous stories… you know exactly who were talking about.

Betamon X: but he won't show up to often… just enough so that you guys will love him. And our final Character that we will add is a pair…

Gomamon: What… we needed him for our favorite coupling…

Betamon X:…

Gomamon: … you take that angry mobs… I'll deal with the next thing.

Betamon X: I don't think so… you said it, you deal with the mobs.

Gomamon: Oh By Azulongmon's beard… I'm toast.

Betamon X: actually grilled…

Gomamon: you're not helping.

Betamon X: I know…. Anyways… we still have yet to create as a main character an "official" Bad guy… although now that we think about it… we may just use Blo**ss**omon.

Provided you guys don't come up with something better… so I'll see you next chapter… and thanks to all of those who review.

Note to Crazyeight… In all honesty… I think that Henry would have put two and two together about the four quadrants theory… getting anyone else besides Rika and Suzie to believe it? That's another thing.


	4. Chapter 4 Demon's Roar

Dragon's Echo

Chapter 4

Demon's Roar

(Betamon X: You know, every once in a while, a Fanfic lives up to a standard hard to get to, Ancient Enemy By Thinker, Perfect Hazard By Black... but until the next one, we hope this Numemon Sludge satisfies you're thirst)

Armageddonmon stirred from his sleep, and the sand rustled above him. His large body was buried deep in the sand of the Dark Desert. His data radiation had changed this once lustrous flowing Jungle into a cold, hard, unforgiving, Black Desert. He had buried himself here years ago after the fall to his foe Fanglongmon. The Great Dragon had sacrificed himself to destroy Armageddonmon. The insectoid digimon had never felt such pain in all of his life as in that one moment. The digital world was saved as Armageddonmon fled. He had stumbled into the ground of this forest, his body starting to be overtaken by it.

He was the Armageddon though, Ragnarök, Judgment Day, War World III, Doomsday... the end of the world. He had no motivation, needed none. His cunning mind was far superior to any other. He had met his match with Fanglongmon, but he had survived... and slowly his will to live destroyed the forest and caused it to collapse into nothing but sand and dust. Thousands of digimon died, and he slept.

His sleep was not fruitless though, he planned in his resting state. He knew that he would not be ready for a long time to fulfill his obligation. He needed someone to prepare the world for him, so that he could destroy it down to nothing. He knew this, and knew that the Sovereign would suspect something, so he waited, until he saw his chance in his mental state. Over four years ago, a young boy wished for a digimon... he had stirred, every part of his fiber awake in that second, the sands of the dark desert shifted, the great turtle had become alert. Armageddonmon knew what he was doing though... he sent his servant out awhile ago... Diablomon... the devil to prepare his way. He knew he couldn't fulfill his mission though, and in that second of that boys cries, he gave the boy his wish. The data sent was very small, but just enough to hide away something in the red digimon's core. Armageddonmon had his digimon.

So, he fell asleep and waited for the Hazard to call him when the world was ready. He never was sure if the old turtle caught on, no doubt he would realize that Diablomon was merely a distraction, but would the turtle realize that the Destroyer of the World would choose a human digimon as the one to come before? To make the world ready for his coming? He did not know...

He had been disturbed from his sleep only seven months after that day. He heard the roar of Hazard, and the sands shifted again as he listened. He felt Hazard try to make the world ready for him... then something strange happened... the work stopped. He let his dreams drift to that part of time and space in the next couple of months. Hazard had been activated by the anger of the boy through his digimon. The result was magnificent... and yet worrisome. The will of the Human through his digimon hadn't been strong enough, and Hazard worked only on it's mission... prepare the world.

As a result, Hazard was neutralized, and the boy unlocked Dukemon. He was surprised to see his foe. Of all the Royal Knights, Dukemon was the only one he had managed to capture. The rest had been either too weak or too evasive. However it was using Dukemon's data that he had created the Hazard. It was an inconvenience, but he could wait... after all, the only sovereign who actually remembered him was Ebowumon... the other's were too young when he destroyed the other three Sovereigns to actually remember him.

He let his mind continue to wonder, and it led him to the Human world in the West Quadrant. There Omegamon fought with Diablomon. Diablomon however had made clones of himself, and used them to create a mockery of him. It had outraged him and he thrashed in his sleep. The rifts in the sand were legendary on that day.

He defeated Omegamon, but Armageddonmon laughed at his so called defeat. Diablomon was an idiot... taking a shot in the mouth... his data would have fallen apart in an hour. What was the fool trying to do? Of course, then the humans fought him with their digimon. He had to say, he was impressed, the Humans fought well, as a team. The one with the Goggles leading his troops on the back of WarGreymon, was a commander of unusual status.

He cared for his troops, knew each of their strengths and weaknesses, knew when and how he could depend on them, and when he needed to distract Diablomon himself so his friends could get away. Armageddonmon couldn't wait tell he faced off this human, but he settled down once again. Chuckling when another digimon tried to impersonate GranDracmon. These impostors didn't even know what it meant to be a Mega digimon.

The sands stirred again as he heard the cry of Hazard on that illuminating night. He grinned... Hazard was starting to emerge from the digimon... pretty soon Megidramon would prepare the world for him. For know he just needed to wait until he called.

-

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-

Devi**dra**monroared his cry and he rocketed against Growlmon. "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME THIS TIME!" His enormous speed carried him past the red dino, as he let his claws slam onto Growlmon's shoulders. He flew up into the sky and dropped the Champion from over three hundred feat in the air.

He grinned as flew down towards the falling digimon, his claws full of Black energy. To his surprise, Growlmon sprouted two massive wings as Devi**dra**mon went to slam his Dark Claw into him. The red dino had not lost any rage of his mate being hurt. Somebody was going to pay, and they were going to pay dearly. He grabbed the Devil Dragons arm and ripped it out of it's socket. Devi**dra**mon screaming out in pain in pain as looked at the trail of data that drifted where his arm was just a second ago. Growlmon wasn't finished though, roaring in agony, Devi**dra**mon felt his other arm torn completely off.

Growlmon's tail wrapped around the virus digimon and the spiked end slammed into Devi**dra**mon. He let go of Devi**dra**mon with his arms and flew straight up as fast as he could. The devil dragon hanging by Growlmon's tail embedded into him, the pain being unbearable, like every piece of his data was being separated.

Growlmon stopped and let Devi**dra**mon hang. He roared, the echo coursing through the digital world. He ripped off the wings of Devidramon in the same manner he had his arms, and let him drop. He watched Devi**dra**mon fall, his lust for a kill satisfied, his fury started to abide, and fear took over. He dove to his mate, and collapsed from exhaustion, next to her, dedigivolving to Guilmon.

Demi-**Devi**mon and Impmon stood there, surprised. "What did we just witness?" Impmon asked.

Demi-**Devi**mon's mind however was on other things, "Get some bindings and sedation liquid... that guys going to make us million's!" he said exasperated.

"By the Dark Zone, is money all you think about?" Impmon asked, "Pineapple head there could have annihilated us all in mere seconds. Besides, without Devi**dra**mon, how in the digital world are we going to carry them?"

Demi-**Devi**mon thought about that for a second, "I'll go higher some help. You bind them up." he told his viral partner.

Impmon sighed, he was never going to understand Demi-**Devi**mon, of course he only understood one of his brothers, but still. "Alright, go higher some more flunky's." Demi-**Devi**mon flew off with five thousand bits and two Black rings. Impmon grabbed some bindings and went up the hill. He strapped Renamon's arms together, and then her feet. He checked her back then, their was some heavy damage. He sighed and went down and grabbed some medical herbs. He saw Lopmon glaring at him, unable to say anything because of the silencer bandage across her mouth.

"What Toots?" Impmon asked innocently. Lopmon glared harder and Impmon felt slightly guilty, "What can I say, I have to make a living." Lopmon rolled her eyes. Impmon laughed, "Listen... I've got some friends I need to take care of first, so I'll annoy you later, Toots." He went back up to Renamon with another pair of restraints and the medical herbs. Lopmon was confused at Impmon's attitude... exactly what was he up too?

Impmon muzzled Guilmon's mouth,then put restrainings around his arms and legs. He tended to Renamon's wounds next. He fixed them up as best he could, but he knew she needed a lot more help then what he could give if she was going to survive a trip with Demi-**Devi**mon. He carried Guilmon down to the camp first and injected him with sleeping data. After witnessing him start to become Megidramon again, he put in a dose meant for Mega's. He looked over at Lopmon, _She knows a lot more about medicine then I do._ He thought. He walked over to her and ripped the silencer off her mouth.

"You little piece of Baihumoning poo, you're no better then Lucemon were you're tamers and Jeri just some big ploy so that you could get some blasted Ebowumon's Forest worth of power you big piece of Devimon scum we should have left you for the D-Reaper how can you do this you little piece of Numemon fodder you're no better then a Demon lord!" Lopmon shot out as fast and mean as she could at him. 

"Would you shut UP!" Impmon shouted interrupting and startling the already frightened Lopmon. She shut up very quick. "A. I am a Demon Lord, so get used to it and B. The only reason I undid you're silencer is because I need you're help healing Renamon, she's badly injured and I doubt she's going to survive the trip with Demi-**Devi**mon. Unless you want her death on you're hands, you're going to help me."

Lopmon had been expecting him to slap her or do something like that. She almost wished he had, cause then she would know that he really had turned his back on everything but she didn't know what to make of this response. "What do you need me to do?" Lopmon asked after thirty seconds of awkward silence.

"I need you to tell me what to do." Impmon explained. "I'll carry you up there, then we'll save Renamon's life and get on with what I need to do." Lopmon was about to demand more, but she realized that he was going out on a limb with Demi**-Devi**mon to do even that much.

"Lets go."

Impmon grabbed Lopmon like a baby and carried her up there, holding extra tight to her rear. "You're loving every minute of this... aren't you?" Lopmon said accusingly.

"Well, I do have a beautiful digimon in my arms completely at my mercy, and able to make you do anything I want... yeah, I have to admit, it's enjoyable." He grinned. He set her down when they got to the top of the hill and she wiggled her self into a good view of Renamon's wounds.

"Ouch." She said, "it looks like the wire framing has been bent if not broken. This is going to take awhile. I could take care of it faster if you let me out of these bonds." Her tone was completely, serious and wanting to help her friend. He almost gave into it.

Impmon laughed, "You are my friend, but I wouldn't trust you any more then Leviamon."

Lopmon sighed, it was going to be a long two hours, "well, lets do this." she said.

-

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-

Takato bolted out of bed in cold sweat as a piercing roar coming from his digivice. The sound slammed into his ears, a pain both Emotional, Physical and Spiritual. It was an echo of the Demon Dragon's Roar. The Demon Dragon that he created. It scared him as he grabbed his digivice, it was showing Hazards rating's going up very quickly.

MEGIDRAMON WING ACQUIRED

"Guilmon...NO...!" Takato shouted at the the D-Arc, unable to do anything. He felt a pain flow through him from Guilmon's heart. A pain of fear, anger, revenge. A pain that shackled happiness away from him.

MEGIDRAMON TAIL ACQUIRED

Takato stared in inexplicable horror at the screen, "GUILMON STOP!" He shouted pleadingly. The pain in Takato's voice woke up his parents.

Takato could do nothing as Hazard's power climbed, "Please... don't." He pleaded to his digivice, "Guilmon... I don't want to lose you again... I can help... please, whatever it is... I can help... I don't want you to turn back to him." Takato continued to plead with digivice like this tell the Hazard level dropped out of the screen.

His mom came bursting into his room with just a robe on, "Takato...are you all right?" She asked with the worry of a mother.

Takato turned to his mom with horror in his eyes. "I'm losing him mom." Takato told her, "I'm losing him again." Tears started trickling as his voice was filled with sadness, anger...fear. Takato's trickling of tears started to flow more steadily. His mom grabbed him into a hug, and he cried to sleep in her arms.

Mrs. Matsuki comforted her child that night like only a mother could. Seeing him like this, she shared in his pain, imagining what it would be like to lose Takato like he lost Guilmon. She rocked him back to sleep. She put him in his bed and covered him up. She sat by his bed for another thirty minutes after that stroking his hair. Mr. Matsuki came in, Takato's mom looked at her husband, "it seems just like yesterday that he was asking to go off to the digital world."

"And the day before that when he was born." Mr. Matsuki said.

Mrs. Matsuki gave her kid one last kiss. Mr Matsuki put his arm around his wife. She stared at her child, "Sometimes I wish we could take a few hours off to spend family time with our kid. Do you think we could have raised him better?" She asked.

"After everything he's done, I don't think there is a way we could have raised him better." Mr. Matsuki said. Mrs Matsuki took one last look at her child, then went to bed with her husband.

-

-

-

Henry and Seiko stayed by Rika's side in the trip to the hospital. The medics were doing their best, but they had to wait tell they got to the hospital before they could cut her open to get to the bone. They had confirmed that Rika had tweaked a bone in the spinal cord out of line and that two of her ribs were broken and another two cracked. Henry watched her the whole time, noticing that about half way through the trip to the hospital, her breathing became easier, and she no longer had the bones jabbing out of her skin.

As they arrived, they hopped out into went the waiting room while Rika was rushed in to the emergency room. Yamaki, Shibumi, Suzie and Ryudamon arrived a few minutes later. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Henry asked Yamaki indicating to the X digimon.

"No... I think it's a horrible idea... but she wouldn't have it any other way. She's too curious about everything, if we don't fill her curiosity at least a little bit, she's going to break out on her own, and that would cause even more problems." Yamaki said, "but she promised she would do her best to make sure the humans weren't afraid of her."

Suzie sat down, looking over at Henry talking to Yamaki. Ryudamon sat next to her, "I hope Wika's ok." She said. Ryudamon put her paw on Suzie's knee.

"She'll be fine, from what I've read of her, she's not one to die easily." Ryudamon stated, "however... I didn't think that a bond that strong was possible." she mused. Ryudamon looked over as a nurse came over to them.

"Excuse me, but no animals are allowed to be here." The Nurse said.

Ryudamon and Suzie looked up at the Nurse and all was quiet for a minute. Henry and Yamaki turned to the two and Seiko and Shibumi watched with fear of what was going to happen.

"I'm sorry," Ryudamon said, "I did not mean to scare you, but under Section 5 Sub 3, it classifies digimon as neither human nor animal, but as a Kingdom all on it's own, broken down from there first into Viral, Data and Vaccine, and from there, Beast and Humanoid, and then it starts braking down into larger groups from there."

The nurse was speechless to see this thing she thought some sort of rare animal speaking to her like an intelligent being. "I...uh... excuse me." She said walking off very quickly.

"That could have gone over worse." Henry said.

"Or Better." Yamaki said disgruntled.

"Pessimist."

"Realist."

"Same thing."

Yamaki chuckled, then he went silent, "I wonder if Ryudamon showing up here had anything to do with this."

"Either that, or it was just a thing of chance." Henry spoke. Their two minds raced thinking about everything that had happened.

Seiko and Shibumi stared off into the direction of the Emergency room, "Reminds me of when Commandramo**n** smashed his fist on the wall. Shattered three bones in you're hand." Seiko stated.

Shibumi chuckled, "I don't really remember those days, I was asleep most of the time thanks to those berries."

"You have a point. Commandramon however wasn't so lucky. As far as we know, he still doesn't feel anything in his fourth finger."

"At least we know their alive." Shibumi said. "Sometimes I wish we still had the old days. The six of us protecting the world."

"Yoush never did quite fit when we found him, I mean, Oikawa and Hiroki at least had each other, and we understood them. Yoush never had that though... he did things his own way, and yet he always watched out for us before him."

"It's hard not to reverence him. He saved all of our lives at the cost of his..." Shibumi said. He looked over and saw Seiko's eyes lower in deep sadness. "You really loved him... didn't you?"

"You didn't?" She asked.

Shibumi sighed, "He was my older brother... I never knew it until after he died, but he did so much for me... he went out of his way so that I could have something as simple as ice cream when I was craving it. Crazy fool."

Seiko laughed, "So that's were he went that one time."

"Yeah... but Seiko... you really loved him...didn't you... more then the brother sister relationship?"

Seiko sighed, "Yeah... I did. I still don't forgive myself to this day for letting him do that."

"I imagine it must have been hard for you to let Rika go." he said.

"Not really. I mean, she does have Renamon after all, if she had any other partner, I probably wouldn't have let her."

"So many things have changed since our generation," Shibumi said.

"yeah... we're all old klutz and you're still living in you're prime." She teased.

"Hey, I'm not that much younger then you." Shibumi defended himself. The was a quiet silence, then Shibumi finally spoke up, "Why did you and Hisoki part your ways?" he asked.

Seiko's eyed stared in the distance, "it was for the best." she replied.

"I don't suppose I'm going to get more of an answer then that out of you... am I?" He asked.

"Someone had to watch out for the little kid." She joked, but her eyes still bored into the distance. She missed her husband as much as she missed Kudamo**n**, she missed seeing her son, she wanted to see her own grandkids more then just through a cartoon. She wanted to know and to feel them, to hug them and let them know how proud of them she was. A tear streamed down her eye as pleading words came to her lips. "Be careful Taichi...Hikari."

Shibumi said nothing as a Doctor came out.

-

-

-

"So... how is she?" Yamaki asked.

"I don't know... she's cracked four ribs, but I had thought for sure two had completely snapped." The doctor told him, "I don't know, judging by how the other ribs cracked, I'm surprised that those two weren't broken completely. I'm starting to think I'm going crazy."

"You're not going crazy... it's an affect from the Digital World." Henry reassured him, "Renamon had become severely injured and it transferred over into Rika. Evidently Renamon's wounds were healed somewhat, so some of Rika's wounds were healed too."

The Doctor stared at Henry in amazement, "I recognized her as a Tamer... and I suppose that makes sense. However I don't understand why you're telling me this."

"Because," Ryudamon said walking up, "we're fighting a war based on the opinion of peoples, and people fear the unknown, the more you know... the better chance I have of living in this world." she said.

The Doctor looked down, "you Digimon are quite remarkable." he complemented

Ryudamon bowed, "It is an honor to be named as such."

Yamaki turned around as three men in suits and ties came crashing through the doors. "On What Grounds do you have to bring a dumb stupid dangerous animal into a public place, and a hospital at that!" Yamashowzu shouted, the short bald one of the three. All eyes turned on the furious government official.

"Digimon Section 5 Sub-Section 2 Digimon are not classified as Animals. Digimon Section 3 Sub-Section 4 A Rookie level Digimon is not naturally dangerous, and a warrant must be made for their arrest. Digimon Section 3 Sub-Section 9 Digimon are allowed in public places as long as they do not disturb the peace, or cause damage to the area because of Size, special abilities or any thing else that could cause damage." Ryudamon stated.

Yamashowzu was taken back at the digimon's reply, "Their's no such thing!" he growled, "Don't you know who I am. I'm Yamashowzu, the leading expert on digimon in world. Head of Japan's research into you creatures."

Yamaki grinned, "You know... while you were trying to get me kicked off the Digimon project, I was protecting both mine and the digimon's rights. Everything Ryudamon just told you is true, and I'm surprised that a Digimon Expert such as yourself doesn't know a thing about them." He said calmly.

Yamashowzu was taken back, "This isn't over Yamaki." he said.

"I would be disappointed if it was, and I'm kind of disappointed that you haven't done you're research, it makes my job to easy." Yamaki said.

"You think you own the government? Rules can be changed... and I'll make sure every last blasted demonic monster is destroyed." Yamashowzu said and walked out.

"Well... looks like the war for Digimon independence has begun." Henry said.

"Let's just hope we got the right kind of ammunition to fight it." Shibumi muttered.

Seiko silently agreed. The war was coming back... this time though, they had Yamaki.

Yamaki wasn't so sure of his self. Yamashowzu knew about every single one of the codes, so what was he doing? Was he just trying to get a message across? Was he trying to throw him off guard? Did he just want an excuse to see Ryudamon? Their was long war ahead of him, and he wasn't nearly as confident as Ryudamon that he could protect her.

-

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-

Impmon walked behind Demi-**Devi**mon while a Phantomon carried their three captives in his energy bubble. Impmon had kept an eye out on Renamon, although she had done fairly well. Guilmon was still sleeping as they didn't want to take any chances with him. Lopmon had her silencer put back on, but they allowed her to stay awake.

Impmon looked around as they walked through the castle. It had a nice feel about it. It wasn't this run down, dark, shadows behind every corner behind of place. Their was definitely a virus feel about it, but it wasn't evil. "So this be our employer's place?" he asked.

"Yeah... what's it matter?" Demi-**D**evimon asked.

"Just want to know in case I kill you and take the job over myself." Impmon told him.

Demi-**Devi**mon laughed, "You may be able to kill me, but you wouldn't make half as much money without my brains."

Impmon chuckled, "why do you think I keep you around?" he asked.

Demi-**Devi**mon glared at him wondering what the young Rookie was up too. Impmon continued to marvel at the place, he looked at the statues made by Ka**m**emo**n**, the fine wood work, the stone cutting. Most of all he loved all of the painting's , their was a few by the great **Veed**ramon, an occasional Flo**ramon**, and he even caught sight of one done by Dianamon. He stared at it and burned a mental picture into his skull. One that was hotter then a dwarven fire.

"This place is nice..." Impmon commented.

The Phantomon spoke up, " I must agree... Demi-**Devi**mon was right that I could make it easy working for this master." he said.

Impmon chuckled thinking about the Phantomon's fate. They got nearer to the main hall, and Impmon noticed that their were a lot more Data and Vaccine's in this area. All slaves of course, with Black Rings. Every last one was female on top of that. Their were Floramon's cleaning all over the place, and he spotted a Raramon carrying food. Their were also a couple of Biyomon's and a few Gatomon's, enslaved to do the master's bidding with Black Rings. The guards let them past after a quick conversation with Demi-**Devi**mon.

As they went Impmon smiled greatly... he had guessed right. Demi-**Devi**mon bowed, and the Phantomon did as well, after he saw Demi-**Devi**mon do it.

Lucemon CM smiled, "You are a brave one to show no respect rookie." he said judgingly.

Impmon laughed, "Don't take it personal... I really just don't like your type." he said. Impmon cast his eyes round about. He was relieved to see that their were no slaves here except for the Kazemon next to Lucemon. However, their was quite a few of mercenaries around the throne, most of them Ultimates.

"Shall I make him fear?" MaloMyotismon asked maliciously.

"No."

"No?"

"I understand where the young rookie is coming from. There are those who are prejudice against those of us smart enough to use both the light and the dark." Lucemon guffawed. "They entertain me." He said slowly

"Or stupid enough, depending on how you look at it." Impmon wittily, "Cause You don't get out of the Dark Zone for a very long time." he said putting a heavy emphasis on very.

Lucemon glared, ready to destroy the rookie until Leviamon spoke up, "He's right my brother... out of all the Demon Lords... you have spent the most time in the dark zone."

Lucemon glared at the Ancient Crocodile, "I would watch you're tongue while you are in my stronghold... Brother." he said, his tone filled with hate.

Demi-**Devi**mon decided it was a good time to present his gifts, "Oh Mighty Lucemon... I have brought you gifts."

Lucemon cheered up somewhat, "Really Demi-**Devi**mon... what do you expect for these gifts?"

"Just the Bits that they are worth."

"Well, then. Who have you brought me to be my slaves? I trust they are very noteworthy for you to be so cocky."

Demi-**Devi**mon grinned, "Oh Yes, they are very noteworthy." Phantomon dropped the three digimon in front of Lucemon. "Renamon... Tamed by the Digimon Queen herself... Lopmon, The sovereign's servant tamed by the human... and Guilmon, who has manifested strength of undeniable power."

Lucemon practically drooled when he saw the three digimon bound before them. "I'll give you thirty million for the three." he said instantly, "I knew you were good Demi-**Devi**mon... but never this good."

Demi-**Devi**mon bowed with honor.

Impmon stared at Lucemon, and his eye caught something in the shadows. It was an Eye, a very large eye, and standing next to the Mega digimon was a tall human with a Gomamon for a partner. Impmon spoke up, "I wouldn't give Demi-**Devi**mon nearly so much credit if I were you... Brother!"

"Hmm?"

Beelzemon brought his two guns to the side like Alucard. "DOUBLE IMPACT!" he cried as two shots rang out.

Time slowed as the bullets pierced through Perfect digimon like water. Beelzemon brought his arms in an X, his guns pointed towards spots farther up the wall and two more bullets slowed time. He put his gun over his shoulders, letting six bullets fly into Phantomon.

Beelzemon stood up as the dust settled, digitama strewn every where. He snickered. Lucemon stood up and MaloMyotismon got ready to strike. "Beelzemon!" Lucemon shouted in surprise and disgust.

"Took you long enough." The Demon Lord said, he brought his two shotguns in an upside down cross. "I thought that you would at least recognize your own brother... looks like I gave you too much credit."

"Shall I destroy him?" MaloMyotismon asked.

"I would leave this one to the demon lords." Ghoulmon said, as he stepped out of the shadows.

Lucemon turned to him, "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Enjoying the show." Ghoulmon stated.

"Bah" Lucemon was mad, "Baihumon... you'll pay Beelzemon!"

Beelzemon grinned, his guns still in the upside down cross, "Now we'll see who's the real Digimon based off Beelzebub." he said.

Lucemon dashed forward, as a sword of light and darkness appeared in his hands. Beelzemon leapt over him as Ghoulmon snatched the Tamed digimon away. Beelzemon's shotguns let a series of rounds enter into Lucemon.

Lucemon covered himself with his wings, the bullets bouncing off him. Lucemon turned around, "Nice shot Alucard..." his mocking voice trailed off as he turned around to come face to face with Beelzemon's Corona Blaster. "Oh Fanglongmon." he swore as Beelzemon grinned.

"CORONA BLASTER!" he shouted as the large amount of violet light slammed into Lucemon sending him flying into the doorway.

"Dark Cannon!" MaloMyotismon shouted. His attack slammed into Beelzemon who had enough time to look back and see the attack coming towards him. It slammed him up against the wall next to Lucemon. Lucemon saw a chance and slammed his foot in Beelzemon's direction. The other demon lord flung his foot up and kicked the attack away. Lucemon growled in fury as Beelzemon grinned.

"Oh, now that was uncalled for." Gomamon said indicating to MaloMyotismon.

Ghoulmon chuckled, "I'll keep a watch for guards." He said and disappeared.

MaloMyotismon turned towards Joe and Gomamon. "You think a rookie can take me? Even if you digivolve to champion... you are nothing but a Tamed digimon. Weak, disgusting, repulsive"

"Always gets the girls, and ends up the hero." Gomamon finished his sentence. "Yeah I know... I've heard this speal from all the other bad guys who were jealous, so can we just get onto the part were I kick you're but?" he asked cockily.

MaloMyotismon was caught off guard, but quickly regained his composure. "Kick my but? You'll be wishing you were in the dark zone." He said almost as cocky.

"So I take it that its' time to put you there?" Gomamon asked still cocky. Joe shook his head in the background at his digimon.

"Enough!" MaloMyotismon cried. "Dark Steam!" he called.

Gomamon rolled forward out of the way of the attack. "NOW JOE!" he cried.

Joe got out his digivice, that was now shaped like the Crest of Reliability, "Let him eat Numemon poo Gomamon..." his digivice glowed a bright silver.

"GOMAMON WARP DIGIVOLVE TO PLESIOMON!" he shouted. MaloMyotismon started to feel a tad bit of fear at this digimon who was looking to be four times his size. Plesiomon charged into the Vampiric digimon, driving him into and taking the left wall along with him. Joe ran after his partner.

Kazemon saw her master injured and went to go help him when Lopmon danced into her way. "I don't think so little missy." she said.

"Hurricane Wave!" Kazemon shouted. Lopmon leapt and started twisting with the wind.

"Lopmon Sovereign Digivolve To Turuiemon." The purple digimon leapt out of the attack.

"Tempest Twist!" Kazemon started spinning on her hands and knees towards Turuiemon.

Turuiemon closed her eyes as the attack came near her. At the last second she moved to the side at hyper speeds. "SHYRUKEN!" she cried, the light distorting around her so she looked like a purple dragon as she slammed into Kazemon. She landed on her hands and knees as Kazemon stumbled back from the attack. Kazemon steadied herself quickly though, and let her feet slam into Turuiemon's face, sending her flying back a few feet.

Lucemon and Beelzemon had finally gotten up after they futilely attempted to beat the other to a digitama by kicking each other from the ground. Lucemon flew up into the air, "Now feel the power of the Ultimate Sacrifice!" Lucemon had a maniacal evil grin on his face. He threw a ball of darkness at the ground were Beelzemon was, followed by a ball of light. The attack commenced forcing the two to mix into a horrible pain. "Let me here you scream!" Lucemon demanded laughing.

"Why?"

Lucemon looked up to see Beelzemon in front of him with two Black wings coming out of his back. "HOW!" he demanded in a rage.

"DARK CLAW!" Beelzemon shouted slashing through the fallen angel. He landed on the other side of the angel as they fell to the ground.

Lucemon could feel himself starting to fall apart, he looked back with a snarl at his brother and took off, his wings able to carry him a lot faster then Beelzemon's could. He flew and weaved as to dodge Corona Blaster.

Beelzemon chuckled, "So you're running eh? How typical." he said. Their was a large vrooming sound as Behemoth crashed through the door. He got on his bike and started after the fallen angel through the very open left wall, the air catching in his Black wings, his shotguns in his case. He drove forward with a mission.

Plesiomon let MaloMyotismon and all the rubble fly. He stared the demon down. MaloMyotismon got up, "I'll destroy you!" he cried charging forward. "CHOAS CRUSHER!" he cried as his claws filled with dark energy. Plesiomon gave him his left fin, and the attack tore right into it.

MaloMyotismon tried to pull his claws out of the injured fin, but couldn't. He looked up at the Long Neck Digimon, "You sacrificed your arm to beat me?!" he cried in disbelief. Plesiomon looked down at him.

"No, the battle was already won, that's just the tactic I choose to use. SAND WATER BLAST!" he shouted as a torrent of sand and water shot out of his mouth crashing down on MaloMyotismon destroying him to a digitama instantly.

Plesiomon de-digivolved and Jyou Kido came over. "You do realize if you had done anything else, he would have beaten you." His partner told him.

Gomamon ground his teeth as Jyou poured an antiseptic into his wound. "I wouldn't have been beaten." he said as soon as the pain was bearable, "but yeah... I probably would have gotten thrashed quite a bit... I didn't forget how smart he is."

Jyou shook his head as he looked at the wound. "This isn't good." he said, "the attack infested it a little bit, and the infestation's grabbed onto you're broken wire framing. You'll probably be out of fighting for two weeks." he told his partner.

"Two weeks being six days." Gomamon told his partner with a grin.

"Just be careful." Jyou said as he splinted the arm up, "I wouldn't have a ride back home if you were gone." he said jokingly.

"oh, thanks a lot." Gomamon said rolling his eyes, " Now I really know how much I'm cared about by my own partner."

Joe grinned, "just keep it to the sniper rifle for awhile... alright?"

"Alright." the seal said. They turned to see Lucemon fly off, thirty seconds later Beelzemon on Behemoth used some debris as a ramp.

Lucemon was flying as hard as he could when a large shadow appeared above him. He looked up to see Beelzemon on Behemoth, his wings blocking out the light as a deadly shadow. "By Azulongmon's beard." he swore.

Beelzemon felt the thrill of the wind as he rode on his bike above the demon lord, the human world behind him, he leaped off his bike and caught the wind of the air as Behemoth slammed into Lucemon. The Demon lord dropped like a rock as the tires ground into him, destroying his face through the friction of their moving. Lucemon slammed into the ground, Behemoth just a few meters away.

"My... brother... how..." Lucemon gasped, the pain excruciating, "How is it that you... not only have the... Cor...onablaster, but also.. Behe...moth and the wings... Tell me... the source of your power..."

Beelzemon put his shotgun up to Lucemon's head, "you'll probably live for another twenty minutes, so consider this a mercy shot... it's more then you would do for me... Brother." he said.

The shotgun rocketed back into his hand, his arm coming up. The moment seemed to last forever as the bullet entered his Brothers head, "Goodbye... Brother... Looks like you won the title of Satanmon after all... Congratulations." The digitama with the symbol of pride sat there. Beelzemon turned away and started walking towards Behemoth.

Beelzemon got on his bike and took one last look at the egg that was once Lucemon. He drove back to the now wall less castle at a slow speed. When he got back, he de-digivolved and looked around. Leviamon, Joe, Gomamon and Lopmon were all waiting for him while Guilmon and Renamon were unconscious.

"What happened to you toots?" Impmon asked Lopmon.

"Kazemon's a pain in the rear to hit it the neck." she told him.

The imp chuckled and turned toward Leviamon, "and exactly were where you doing this whole ordeal?" he asked.

Leviamon chuckled, "I was just letting my family deal with each other, besides I was having a nice snack" he said, "I never did like rookies though." he said.

Impmon rolled his eyes, "right... you didn't think I could do it... did you?"

"Nah... I knew Lucemon's pride would destroy him. He let himself be blinded by his power." Leviamon told him, "Anyways, I should head off... I'll contact you the usual way." he said.

"Alright... so who's next?" Impmon asked.

"Lilithmon."

Impmon's eyes were raised, "You sure you want to try and take her on?"

"No..." the demon lord said, "It's just that if we defeat her, we'll have to do it openly and if we do beat her... then it might scare everybody else enough to turn down their operations."

Impmon looked at his brother, "If we don't make it out of this one... I'll see you in the Dark Zone."

"Yeah... the curse of being a Demon Lord, you have to spend time with you're brothers you hate and the sister you can't stand." Leviamon said. He turned off and slunk into the sewer system.

Impmon watched his brother go, then turned around to see Lopmon right in his face. "You've got a lot of explaining to do." she said.

Impmon sweat dropped. "That depends if you'll go along with me." he said.

Lopmon folded her ears, "We don't see you for three years, then you kidnap us, take us to demon lord, then have you fight and destroy you're own brother, and now you just expect me to trust you one you're word? On top of that you've been hanging with a human and you haven't told us about it." she demanded.

"So do you agree?"

"You're an extortionist."

Impmon grinned, "Welcome to the life of a Vigilante, Toots."


	5. Chapter 5 Ebowumon's Cry

Dragon's Echo

Chapter 5

Ebowumon's Cry

Joe got up from looking at Renamon's back, "We can't keep going in her state." he told everyone.

Impmon glared, "We have to keep going, and we don't have a choice. Drug foxy up some more and lets get going."

"It's not the pain." Gomamon said, slightly loopy. "I mean, I actually enjoy it when I get injured pretty bad." he said.

Joe glanced at his partner, "That's it, no more Els herbs for you." he said.

Gomamon looked up at his partner and grinned, "Awww... pwetty pwease?" he asked in a very wide eyed state.

"I rest my case." Joe said, "anyways, we can't keep going, Renamon's wires are just now starting to heal 72 hours later. If we move them much for the next couple of days, she's going to digitamasize fairly quick, and from what you've told me... you do not want Rika's wrath on you, Impmon." the blue haired stated.

Guilmon held his mates hand as she slept on the ground, "What can we do?" he asked worriedly.

Impmon struggled with a decision as all eyes turned to him. All of the digimon had just started automatically following him, as he got them into this mess, and he should get them out. Impmon looked up at the sun just barely rising above the crest. The light sliding along the ground, glistening in a flaming orange. Something occurred to him, "Since when does the South sector have a sun?" he asked.

Lopmon looked in the direction of the light, "It doesn't, my master would never let anything brighter then him exist in this quadrant." she said.

"Then exactly what is that?" he asked. There was a strange silence as it slightly rose higher as they watched for another ten minutes. Impmon finally stopped staring at it, and turned to the group, "We'll figure that mystery out later. As for now, I'll go tell Terriermon what's up and you guys stay here and take care of Renamon, then you guys can head back."

"I'm coming with you." Lopmon said, "Terriermon's probably gone nuts by now and is looking for us... I have a Data Bond with him, so I can tell where he is."

Impmon listened to what she said. He was about to say something when his mind clicked. "Wait... Terriermon is your mate?" he asked astonished.

"What do you expect?" Gomamon asked nonchalantly, "You leave a girl with another guy for three years and you just expect to come back with her still single." His grin was way too big for his face.

Impmon paused, "I'm going... do what you guys want to." he said.

"Life has its ups and downs. I honestly thought that you had gotten past you're gluttony for everything to be yours." Joe spat at him. "It didn't work out for me and Mimi, so what. Big whoop, if I was a gluttonous idiot, and I'd harbor that fact forever and let it eat me inside." Joe was furious, and let the rookie digimon knew it. "I'm disgusted."

Impmon turned around and faced him. The rookie and the human eyes met in fierce combat, willing the other one to back down. Impmon glared as hard as he could, "you have no right to say that word around me. I'm repenting of my sin."

"And yet you still keep it as yours."

Impmon's eyes glared, when something caught his attention in his peripheral. It was Guilmon, looking worried sick for his mate's safety. He grew in fear as a thought pierced his mind, '_that roar... what if he does lose it. They'll be thrashed... I need to protect them... for the tamers sake.'_ Impmon walked over to a tree and climbed up it. Joe and Gomamon looked up at him on the branch while Lopmon came over, waiting for his comment.

"I can't leave you guys with Pineapple head." he said. "So Lopmon... go into the town three miles to the west and see what sort of food you can scrounge up. Joe, you look after Renamon, I want her up and ready as soon as possible. Guilmon, I want you to go and look for Terriermon and put that nose to work. I'll keep watch here, and see if I can't figure out what the heck that sun thing over there actually is."

Joe smiled, "Alright, Impmon... watch over Gomamon and Renamon, I'm going to try and find some medical herbs."

Impmon fell back off the branch in anger and surprise and landed on the ground with a thud. He got up very quickly, "hey, I'm the one giving the orders here, not you Glasses boy." Joe continued to go look for some herbs. "Hey, I'm talking to you, didn't you're human parents ever teach you any manners?" he raved as Joe continued to walk away. "Hmmph."

Guilmon looked up at Impmon, "you're funny." he said chuckling a little bit.

Impmon turned around, "I'm not funny!" he told them, "And why aren't you going and finding Terriermon?" he demanded.

Lopmon chuckled at the rookie digimon and started to head off towards the city for some food.

Impmon saw that everyone left, and for second, felt the same way he did when he saw the tamers and their digimon playing, but with him left out. He quickly shook the thought off, and climbed the tree again to try and figure out the sun mystery.

-

-

Takato walked home from school as his thoughts on the night that Guilmon started to acquire Megidramon's data. His thoughts also drifted back to the time he created Megidramon, and what the monster he became that day. Many of his thoughts were not pleasant, it was a pain that racked him, knowing this was his fault, and unable to do anything. It tore him apart, and even the fact that Ryudamon was able to come to this world didn't cheer him up.

"Come on Takashi... are we just going to stay here and watch him sulk all day. I mean honestly, it was in the past... Megidramon didn't even last long enough for him to go to the dark zone, so what's his problem?" A strange voice asked.

Takato turned around to see Steven with a Koromon hanging onto his hair, their was something strange about the digimon though. "I'm already starting to regret letting you out of your egg." Steven said, "and I told you... it's Steven not Takashi." the teen told the digimon.

"Yeah yeah, I don't see what the big deal is in using you're middle name over your first, it's not like anybody's going to care of find out. I mean come on; I've been able to hang around lots of people without them finding out who I really am." The Koromon said, "And can we please Baihumoning go do something, I've been stuck in the Dark Zone for the past three years, and you have no idea how boring viruses are."

Steven sighed, grabbed his D-Arc and swiped a card through it, "Recovery Activate!" he said.

Koromon fell asleep in an instant. Takato raised his eyebrow at the other tamer, "Did the egg finally hatch?" he asked.

"yeah... I forgot how much of a pain in the rear he can be." Steven said.

"I don't mean to pry, but if Takashi's your real name, why do you go by Steven?" Takato asked.

Takashi bit his lip, _'__Baihumon you, Betamon... you are so dead.'_ He thought. "Well... Steven is my Great Grandpa's name... and that's what I like to be called now. It sort of reminds me of my lineage." he lied.

Takato was understood, but didn't understand why. His face told Takashi he was perplexed, "Ok?" Takato said baffled.

There was an awkward silence. "Does Yamaki know about him?" Takato finally asked.

"Not yet." Steven replied, "I was going over their right now. I also figured Ryudamon could use some companionship."

Takato looked up at the in-training, there was something different about the small digimon, but he just couldn't quite put his finger on it. Then it hit him, the two antennas' of Koromon's were thicker and crossed in an X fashion. "Wait... he's an X digimon?"

Steven sweat dropped, "Errr... Did I forget to mention that?" he said quickly. Takato sweat dropped as well.

They both turned around as a two very familiar faces came running towards them. They were both fairly surprised at how fast the two ten year olds were moving. "Ai... Mako," Takato cried, "What's up with you guys?" he asked as they neared.

"There's a digimon near by." Mako said quickly showing Takato his D-Arc, "do you think it could be Impmon?" he asked.

Steven flinched inside, feeling horrible in the next couple of seconds. "Actually..." the teen started to say, not wanting to burst the twins' bubbles. "..." he stopped as all three pairs of eyes were on him. He sighed and lifted Koromon X off of his head.

"Oh cool!" Mako said, "It's a Koromon."

"No it's not." Ai told her brother rolling her eyes, "its antenna is different, and it's a darker shad of pink too."

"Yeah." Takashi said, "He's actually Koromon X." he told the twins.

"Oh sweet... is he your's?" Mako asked enthusiastically.

Takashi sweat dropped again; "People don't own digimon Mako." he told the young one.

"I know... so is he your's?"

"Yeah... he's my partner." Steven said.

"Hello." An older lady said walking up behind the two twins, "you must be Takato and Steven, I've heard so much about you from the twins." she said.

Steven bowed, "I'm honored to be thought of such." There was a big yawn from the little pink digimon.

"Hey Takashi... I'm hungry." the X digimon told him.

The twins' grandma jumped, very startled at the sound of the digimon. Koromon X turned around and saw the twins staring at him. "Hey... what, you guys haven't ever seen a digimon before?" he asked obnoxiously.

"Please give me a sec." Steven said to everybody after an awkward silence. The group started to laugh as Steven shoved Koromon in a backpack, with him complaining and freaking out the whole way.

"Hey come on... I just got out of the Baihumoning Dark zone and you're going to throw me in the backpack!" the pink ball struggled with all of his might to stay out of the bag, but the Tamer eventually won.

The group continued to laugh.

-

-

-

The scientist stood up as Yamashowzu came in, "sir... phase one is at fifty three completion."

Yamashowzu adjusted his glasses, "Good... now to choose our first one. Where is the list of candidates?" he demanded.

"Right here sir."

Yamashowzu looked down the list,

Drimogemon - Underground, put in mines

AeroVeedramon – Very rare, likely not to find any

Antylamon – Risky, one of the Tamers Digimon, very powerful.

Armormon – Basic Tank Solider.

Datamon – Very good with Computer, could help with research.

Etamon – Humanoid Basic Solider

Gigadramon – Flier, Maneuverable, powerful, long range

LoaderLeomon – Underground, works well in mines.

MarineDevimon – Underwater operative, perfect anti-ship digimon

Megadramon – Partner to Gigadramon

MetalMamemon – Assassin

Rapidmon – High Powered long rang weaponry, Risky Tamed... may be possible to find a non tamed one.

RiseGreymon – High Powered long rang weaponry

Tankdramon – One equals a whole Panzer Division

WarGrowlmon – Most powerful Ultimate Class known, Risky Tamed

Yamashowzu read each name carefully, "Oh how I would love to take the tamers digimon, but that would be an unwise until we have public opinion." he stated. "As for the others, I want one of each, and three Megadramon/Gigadramon's ready to go in the next seventy two hours." The scientist got to work.

Yamashowzu looked at the specs on the Digimon, his eyes scanning over the tamed ones for an extra few seconds. Yamaki had no idea what he was actually dealing with. Digimon weren't pets, they were data, and you use data. This data just seemed to pretend it was Biological, even horses obey their masters. The digimon were a weapon though, a weapon powerful enough to let Japan become the ultimate superpower. No, Yamaki underestimated what he would do, and it was going to be his down fall.

"Sir!" A guard said coming up with a sheet of paper, "It seems that another digimon is in this world."

"What... why wasn't I notified earlier when it was emerging." he demanded.

"Because it didn't bioemerge."

"You mean to tell me that there's been a digimon here this entire time and you weren't able to pick it up?" Yamashowzu said fiercely.

The worker backed down a bit, "Sir... the digimon is only an in-training... he hatched six hours ago from an egg already here, and the signal was so small, I wasn't sure since there was no field."

Yamashowzu let this enter his mind, "Interesting, who's the tamer."

"I don't know sir, that's the strange thing, we've matched him up against everyone in the records; he's not a Japanese civilian Sir."

Yamashowzu let the info stir in his mind, there was an unknown Tamer with a digimon, it irked him. "Who's the digimon?"

"A Koromon sir."

"Do you know the Evolution Lineage?"

"I tried running scans, but he's an X sir."

Yamashowzu spun around and glared at the man, "WHAT!"

"Please sir... I tried everything I could, but the X Virus or Antibody kept interrupting everything I did."

Yamashowzu waved him off before he hurt the man, "X's." he spat, "I hate X's... until I break their data code, I won't be able to control an X Digimon..." his fingers rapped on the table as the distant clack of lots of keyboards sounded in the room, each individual scientist working to improve the system and make it run smoothly.

-

-

-

Ryudamon sat by Rika's bed talking with Rika's doctor about a digimon healing and the bond between tamers, in the hospital when four more visitors showed up. Yamaki looked up from his laptop to see Takato, Steven, and the imp twins come in, he was startled by the pink digimon that jumped off of Steven's head and landed on Rika.

"You know... I prefer it when you're injured like this, cause it's a lot harder for you too digitamasize me when you're in a large amount of pain, I'm sure you'll manage to do it somehow, especially if start teasing you about Takato." Koromon X said blatantly to Rika.

Rika gave him a perplexed face. Steven grabbed his digimon, excused himself for a second, slammed Koromon X up against the wall and walked back in. Everyone stared at the tamer and digimon.

"Owwww," Koromon X complained, "you didn't need to hit so hard, I could have damaged my framing or core."

Steven sighed as a silence fell over the room. Yamaki spoke up, "I assume you're Digitama hatched." he stated, not asked.

"Yeah," Koromon X said, "You got a problem with that; well eat Numemon poo, because I am not going back to the Dark Zone for another three years, I HATE that place." Koromon glared.

Yamaki stared at the digimon through his glasses. Koromon stared as equally hard back. "The dark zone, eh."

"Yeah, the dark zone,"

"Digital Hell,"

"Yeah,"

The silence got even more awkward. Rika shifted in her bed, not trying to move too much because of her back, Takato looked between Yamaki and Koromon, Ryudamon tried holding in her laughter, and the doctor thought it was great how digimon had such different personalities.

"I'm sorry, were you teased a lot because you're an X?" Yamaki asked with humor in his voice. Ryudamon couldn't hold it in any longer and was on the floor laughing her wire framing off. It was contagious and so had everyone else laughing right along with her, even Rika started to chuckle, but quickly stopped due to the pain in her back.

They all eventually stopped laughing four minutes later. The all met eyes with somebody else, and started bursting out laughing again. It was finally interrupted when the Doctor had to go see another patient.

Koromon X was still grinning a bit, when a thought popped into his mind, "oh yeah... I did promise Anubismon..." he muttered. "The tamers digimon..." he said, and everyone got quiet, "they're alive..."

"How do you know?" Yamaki asked.

Koromon laughed, "oh... I just overheard some swearing from Lucemon." he told everyone. They gave him a befuddled look, "he just got his Tailmon handed to him by Beelzemon."

The imp twins interest peaked.

-

-

-

Ebowumon walked in to Zhuqiaomon's cave. "I hope you have a good reason to disturb me old one." The grouchy Phoenix snarled, "The humans have started to form something, and I need to take care of it."

"I'm only here because Baihumon is to lazy to do anything." his Scottish head retorted, "Created Yggdrasil to run his world, and when the program thought itself better then even his Holy one Fanglongmon, Baihumon let his humans which he didn't even properly raise to deal with it. Almost caused the whole West to collapse."

"Come now, we aren't here to talk about each other's mistakes." the Irish and older head said.

"Then why do you come to disturb me." Zhuqiaomon questioned. The question ringing home, as it was difficult to travel from quadrant to quadrant.

"The sands have shifted."

"You would bother me with this old LadyDevimon tale?"

"It is no tale my friend." The Irish head said, "It is true as I stand here. You don't trust you're elders, and yet you took my advice on how to raise the Tamers', making them the most powerful active Human Hero's."

"You mean the most powerful." the Phoenix told him, "What do you have... a Legend among Legends who disappeared after the defeat of Demon, a kid easily manipulated, a girl in a wheel chair and a kid who doesn't even know the true feelings of his digimon."

"Do NOT Diss my Humans!" The Scottish head shot at him, "They are far more powerful then you!"

"Is that to make up for your own lack of power, Coward?" Zhuqiaomon roared.

"Coming here was a waste of time." The Irish head said, "He's not going to listen to us anymore then Baihumon."

"No." the Scottish head said plainly, "Azulongmon wont' believe us, because he thinks the warrior was beaten by the humans. We have no choice."

Zhuqiaomon listened to the two argue, "What is it that is such a threat." he demanded to know, "and don't just give me an old Babamon's tale."

The Irish head sighed, and the Scottish head started to speak, "I'll give you my evidence. You know of the four barriers." he said.

"Of course, the Dark ocean for the South East, The Black Desert for the South West, The White Mist for the North East and Twilight for the North West."

"Each with its own history, made at different times," The Irish head spoke up.

The Scottish head continued, "The Dark Ocean was once a great ocean, until its waters ran black with the data off all kinds of digimon."

"The Black Desert was formed when Armageddonmon fled from his wound, seeking to be healed and crashed into the forest, his evil radiation obliterating it." The Irish one went on.

"And the white mist is Fanglongmon's way of hiding until he has regained sufficient strength to rule again." The South Sovereign continued, "And no one knows much about the twilight. I still say you're just telling me an old wives tale."

"If I am, then we have no reason to fear. If I'm not, then Armageddonmon is planning something, and we're going to need every last ounce of our strength if we're going to make it through."

"You speak as if it were Ragnarök, were every last part of the end was planned and there was nothing we could do to stop it, yet we must try in desperation."

The old turtle sighed in shame, "You are right... I do feel as if it were Ragnarök, because I see the signs of before happening again."

"Armageddonmon would not be stupid enough to use the same tricks twice." The Phoenix let the turtle know.

"Yet his style won't change." Ebowumon said. "The impostors have checked our strength; every quadrant has Human Hero's of a large amount of power. Racism has risen to a new level.

"Bah, the X Antibody is no big threat, as long as there enough of them to counter act the X Virus."

"You have no clue!" Ebowumon roared. Zhuqiaomon was taken back; to see the North Sovereign angry was something he didn't think was ever going to happen in his lifetime. "You weren't there when the Chrono Virus hit, changing digimon to a more powerful state! You weren't there when Organizations started using Chrono's for their own use! You weren't there when the great Slaughter started striking every last one of the Chrono's down!" with every "You weren't there," Ebowumon roared louder and Zhuqiaomon felt every last fiber of the old digimon's soul tremble in anger. He felt the penetration of the words to his core.

"You weren't there when I killed Chronomon myself..." the old turtle spoke softly, all the anger replaced by a pain and anguish. "You weren't there when I watched him fall, not becoming an egg, but so damaged by the poison of the AntiChrono that his egg shattered… Never to be reborn again, by the Dark Zone..." Ebowumon swore. He turned around and started to leave.

The southern Sovereign watched the oldest digimon alive walk away back to his own quadrant. He sat there for ten minutes, not moving a muscle as the forest on the turtle's back finally faded away. He flew up and looked over his Kingdom, and the golden ball of the humans. He turned to the direction of the Dark Desert, his four eyes piercing as far as they possible could. He landed.

"Makuramon." He called. The Monkey Deva walked in.

"I've been analyzing the Data, and it seems as if the humans are attempting to establish a link past the barrier. However, there are some strange things wrong with a few of the other data parts as there is no way for a human to merge past the barrier, just the ability to bring a digimon up out of it. However, it leaves the digimon knocked out in the real world while it's collecting its proteins. This contradicts several of our theories on what the humans were going to do." Makuramon was cut off when Zhuqiaomon spoke.

"You're in charge of the project, completely and totally. I don't want those humans doing anything until I get contact with the Human Tamers. Do you understand me?"

"Master?"

"Also, I'll be bringing back the X virus leading expert to help."

"We don't need his help... you do realize who his brother is." Makuramon protested.

"I realize exactly who his brother is. That's why he's going to help me. Now leave... and make sure the humans don't do anything." Makuramon did as he was commanded, and Zhuqiaomon focused in on one of the Digicores that surrounded him. Unlike the twelve that connected Azulongmon to the digivice of each of the Destined, Zhuqiaomon's connected him with the Deva's.

Lopmon was on her way back to the camp with a crate full of food when something tugged at her. "Master?" she spoke aloud to no one on the road. A passing Raidramon thought she had a problem with her core or something.

_Lopmon I have job for you and you're Tamed friends. I'll be picking you up within the next couple of hours._

"Renamon is injured, and we have no clue where Terriermon is."

_I see, so you are not at your usual place. You've been adventuring now? I didn't ever give you permission!_

"No master. I was kidnapped, when Guilmon and Renamon came running after me. In the rescue Renamon was severely injured and both of them were captured."

_Some Rescue_

"Master please. Impmon then took out Lucemon and we are now heading back to our town, but Renamon is still injured."

"Ummm... Lopmon?" Guilmon asked, "Why are you talking to no one?"

Lopmon heard him, but knew not to dismiss from her master until he let her go.

_I still need to pick up the twins. I trust you kept a good eye on him._

"Yes master." Lopmon spoke. Guilmon cocked his head when she said that. Then it clicked who the "master" was. He sat and waited for Lopmon to finish.

_Anubismon may trust that one completely, but I think we still need to keep an eye on him. Now, where is that disgusting mate of yours?_

Lopmon was used to Zhuqiaomon dissing on Terriermon, she shrugged the anger off. "He's coming towards us, and I feel that he will be with us by the time you arrive Master."

Guilmon looked around and noticed that there was no one else on the road. He smelt a presence behind a tree, and turned towards it. He was about to call out a when a black Spiral streaked towards Lopmon while in her trance. Guilmon slammed into her pushing her out of the way. As she rolled to safety, he looked behind him to see the Black Spiral strapped to his tail.

Terriermon came out from around the tree and faced his mate. He grinned and threw another Black Spiral. It caught her in the ear. Lopmon and Guilmon both struggled with the hold as Terriermon laughed, "I guess I was smart to grab a few Spirals when I tracked you guys down to Lucemon's place."

Terriermon stood over Lopmon and Guilmon like they were a prize, as he was in full control of his mind. When going through Lucemon's palace, he accidentally stumbled onto a Dark Spore. It absorbed the Ring and Gear, and put him in control of his own dark mind.

He looked over as Guilmon's Chest Flashed the Hazard.


	6. Chapter 6 Hope Whispers

Dragon's Echo

Chapter 6

Hope Whispers

Betamon X: Alright, F.T's by passed mine and Gomamon's little conversation for long enough, we're getting in the Beginning here. I just have one question to ask. WHO THE EBUWOMON'S FOREST IS THE BAD GUY!

Gomamon: Well... we've got the The Demon Lords, Yamashowzu, Armageddonmon, Terriermon, Blo**ss**omon... and he could still throw in the D-Reaper, and IceDevimon, as well as the fact that he did mention GranDracmon...

Betamon X: So we've got 3 + 4 with three other possibles... I thought you said you weren't bringing in a hundred different guys.

Alright, Alright, Lay off... somewhat... Yes, I do have a Set bad guy thank you very much, and you're list is going to get shortened fairly quick... like in this Chapter... the Good guy list... (Sweat Drops)

Gomamon: Well, lets see who we've got, Takato, Guilmon, Rika, Renamon, Henry, Terriermon, Suzie, Lopmon, Kenta, MarineAngemon, Kazu, Guardramon, Ryo... you got rid of Cyberdramon... lets see... Yamaki, Impmon, the Imp twins, Jeri, Ryudamon, Steven/Takashi, Koromon X, Zhuqiaomon... and I think thats it.

Betamon X: Until this chapter that is... anyways, that's still Twenty two characters... you're really going to have to shut some stuff down.

I know... I'll deal with that, Somehow... and I've gotten a great Idea to knock off Three, make that four... and bring in a few more... Anyhow, if you haven't noticed, I'm starting to Break this story more and more into different components, so thats' how it's going to be for awhile, If I really need to bring everything together, just let me know... well... Enjoy the show.

???: 'Ello, y'all! Just to make sure that F.T. stays on the straight and narrow, I've volunteered myself magnificently to proof-read this bit to make sure no mistakes are made. Aren't y'all happy?

Chapter 6

Hope Whispers

(Betamon X: Didn't we already put that up?)

(Gomamon: Your Point?)

Hideto paid the Kiwimon eighty bits for the night and food at her inn. The Kiwimon accepted it and Hideto walked out, Warg and Melga following behind him. "Are we going to head straight there?" Warg asked.

"No." Hideto said, not fully cognizant. "We need to pick up some supplies."

"Supplies?" Melga asked. "What are you thinking, Hideto?"

"Other then the fact that we need Taichi if we're going to win the upcoming battle, not much."

Warg laughed quietly, "You avoid the question well."

Hideto started to walk toward the south part of the town. He spoke a few minutes later. "I hang around with Neo; I've learned how to word things carefully."

Melga chuckled. "So... did Neo ever settle down with a single digimon?"

"Would you believe me if I said he did with a Numemon?"

"No."

"Well then, how many bits do you two have on you?" he asked.

They were taken back for a second, "What? Why?"

Not answering, Hideto walked to a little building, Warg and Melga following. At the counter was a SnowAgumon; "Good day to you," he said, somewhat surprised to see a human there.

"Yes... I'd like for both Melga and Warg to get a complete refit."

"Say what?" Warg demanded. "Since when do I need a refit? My father gave me these claws!"

"Cut the act." Melga told the Mega, "You can just sharpen all of you're armor out, and your dad was a Plesiomon anyways."

Hideto laughed. "All right, make that one refit and one brush up."

The SnowAgumon looked down a list. "Alright, if you came back in two days, we'll finally have enough time. Otherwise we're booked until then."

"750 Bits apiece."

The SnowAgumon raised his eyebrows. "I think we may be able to arrange something." he said. He leaped down and went into the blacksmith. Two minutes later, the SnowAgumon strolled out, speaking on the go. "Alright, but it'll be payment upfront, then you guys can go back around."

Hideto looked to the two digimon expectantly.

"You're kidding me." Warg said in utter disbelief.

"They ARE your weapons and armor."

Melga popped out seven 100 bit coins and a 50 bit coin and put them on the counter. He counted what he had left, 320 measly bits.

Warg sighed and placed the same up on the counter, and found out he still had 580 bits left. They went around back, Warg mumbling something the whole way.

Walking in, they see BlackAgumon working on a blade; he was pounding out some Obsidian Digizoid. Next to him was Agumon working on an ax, which a Boltmon had ordered. They both looked up. "Hello... so you're the human."

"Yeah." Hideto said.

"Where you from?" Agumon asked, "'Cause I don't recognize you from the West, and I know you're not an Eastern Human. South?" he guessed.

"North actually." Hideto said.

Agumon was shocked, and his expression showed it. "Really? I have family up there."

"Anyways," BlackAgumon cut in, "What do you say we cut the chatter and get to work? He's offering us 750 bits a mon, and that's not an offer we get everyday." He looked at the two, and motioned to Melga, "Come this way ...?" he indicated to the MetalGarurumon.

"Melga." he said.

BlackAgumon was surprised at the name, but figured it was a northern thing. "Well, uh, Melga, you mind turning down all weapons?" he asked getting a device that separated the metal from the digimon.

"Already have, I'm not an amateur." Melga brushed off annoyed.

Hideto sat back and watched. They took the armor off of both of the digimon, BlackAgumon throwing it into a pile to be smelted and Agumon taking one piece off at a time and setting it down gently. BlackAgumon took Melga's dimensions and sketched a few figures on a piece of paper, directions to forge new armor for him. Melga looked through the list of missiles available that he could buy for extra besides the standards that came with his own suit; which were taken out of very carefully.

Warg watched in fascination as Agumon took his claw and heated it red-hot. Grabbing a hammer, he began pounding the kinks and dents out of it, and took the claw to the sharpener. He ran it through, repeating the process with the other claw. He then put a fresh coat of paint on it, and reinforced the inside with a two centimeter thick layer of Orange Chrome Digizoid. He went to work on the rest of the armor.

Melga came over to Warg, "Could I get 70 bits from you?" he asked.

"What for?" Warg questioned.

"Well... there's a really cool missile that brakes into five separate ones, and it cost 100 bits to install!" Melga pleaded.

"How much do you have?" Warg asked.

"230, but two hundred of that is going towards updating all of my normal ice missiles and such."

Warg laughed, "You so owe me when we get back." he told his friend.

"I'll hook you up a date with Ophanimon... now is it a deal?"

Warg laughed harder, "You're really going all out… here's 150, upgrade your sensors while you're at it."

Melga practically fell over in delight, and pranced over to BlackAgumon, handing him the money and rapidly rambling about the upgrades he wanted.

"I swear, you two act like such kids some time…" Hideto told Warg.

"What do you expect?" Warg asked. "We're practically naked in a blacksmith."

Hideto sighed. Finally getting their armor finished, Hideto expressed his gratitude. Warg and Melga complimented the two digimon, as they had more mobility and comfort in their armor then they think they've had in a long time.

Hideto went out around to a few different places, buying a grand total of 1238 bits worth of food and basic utilities, leaving him with 154 bits left. Warg and Melga tried to keep asking what was with all the supplies they were carrying, but Hideto didn't say a word. They just followed him out of the city and to a large house.

**Jiji**mon came out in total surprise as Hideto came with food and other things they needed. "What are you doing here?" he snarled, raising his claw staff.

"Hoping to help some digimon out... if the rumors are true, then the money that Agumon and BlackAgumon are making isn't near enough to feed the X's you house." Hideto said.

Melga was shocked. "X's?" he snarled, "We're helping a bunch of lowlife filthy X's?"

"Watch you're tongue if you wish to keep it." **Jiji**mon said.

Hideto glared at Melga. The MetalGarurumon shrank back.

**Jiji**mon was still weary, "And how do I know that what's in those sacks isn't a bunch of Digimon ready stampede through my house and slaughter everybody?"

"Because if that were the case then Omegamon would have crushed you already." Hideto said.

**Jiji**mon laughed. "As if you could control a Royal Knight," he mocked.

Hideto motioned to Warg and Melga, and they put their supplies down. Hideto got on Melga and turned around for one last word, "I have done most of what I can... now if those young Digimon die, the sin is on you're head." With those parting words, he left, riding on Melga's back, Warg following closely behind.

**Jiji**mon watched him leave, and went over to the bags. There were much needed supplies in them, and for the first time, **Jiji**mon actually had a whisper of hope that not all the good was gone in the world.

-

-

-

Takato stirred in the Gym with every one else. It had been two days since Rika had injured her back, and the only time he had gotten a chance to meet with Yamaki was at Rika's hospital room. Yamaki had them stay away from the research tower due to the fact that he didn't want Yamashowzu pulling any cards on him.

This school assembly was rather sudden, announced just earlier today. He could hear the kids talking about this rather sudden assembly; some were saying it was a pep rally for a football game. (Editor's Note: Also known as soccer for all us Yanks.)

"So, what do you guys think this assembly is about?" Jeri asked.

Kenta leaned back with his hands behind his head. "Hopefully, it's an announcement that all the school days are shorter and we only have to go four days a week." 

"I don't think so." Henry said thoughtfully, very full aware of the possibility of what this "emergency" assembly could be about.

Suzie looked up at her big brother, "Do you think it'll be bad?" she asked, having the same inclination of what was happening as her brother.

"Come on." Jeri smiled, "don't burst Kenta's dream."

"I thought I was the dreamer." Takato asked innocently.

Suzie ruffled Takato's hair, "You awe the biggest dweamew, that doesn't mean the west of us awen't allowed to dweam." she said. The group laughed, and Suzie and Takato's eyes met for a second. Both sensed something in the other's glance.

Henry watched as the principal got up, and could tell this wasn't a normal assembly. The principal's posture gave him away.

"Welcome, and if you'll all settle down, we'll get this assembly started." He said.

The students took three minutes to settle down, but eventually did. Clearing his throat, the principal began to speak. "All of you may be wondering exactly what this assembly is about. You've all heard about the Digimon Analysis class in your homeroom class. Due to the fact that the class is a college level class and only about 15 or so of you can actually get into the class, we're here to announce that there will be a Digimon Education class which will teach the basics of digimon and will go over the kinds of digimon. You will be required to know how digimon interact with humans and each other, along with many other things." The crowd immediately broke into talking about this new development, marveling at this development.

"This is awesome... a class about a T.V show!"

"I wonder if we'll get partners…"

"They're going pretty far to make people believe a lie…"

"I'll ace that class easy."

"There's got to be some sort of catch."

"I'm bound to get an A in that class."

The talk among the tamers was a little different. "I'm glad there's an easier class, I looked at that analysis class, it's pretty tough, and I don't think I could pass it." Kenta said.

Takato was surprised at the new development, "An actual digimon class we were learning about Digimon..."

Jeri was celebrating, "A digimon class, this is going to be so sweet."

Suzie grabbed onto Takato and gave him a huge hug, "Yeah... ANOTHEW DIGIMON CLASS!" She shouted, then realized what she was doing and let go of Takato, but continued to celebrate.

Henry was worried though, _What did this mean? Why is this class that wouldn't seem to help further our education be offered... then again, pottery isn't a class that will help us in the future, and it's offered as an elective... but why now? Does this have anything to do with Ryudamon?_

After five minutes of attempts, the principal finally managed to unwind the now rowdy children. "Now, the man who was in charge of all of this. Mitsuo Yamaki!"

Henry was surprised as the name was announced, and the whole group of kids grew to a dead silent. The only sound that could be heard was the echo of Yamaki's shoes slapping up against the ground, the echo reverberating off the walls time and time again. Behind him walked Ryudamon, treading so softly that barely a whisper was heard.

Striding up to the microphone, Yamaki paused, the silence a threatening shadow, creeping softly over everyone. Ryudamon cocked her head, not understanding what was going on, but left it up to Yamaki. 

The leader of Hypnos looked around the crowd, kids darting their eyes away from his glaring contact. No one was willing to look into a picture-perfect scowl and glaring eyes. Finally, these eyes fell upon Henry Wong. They made direct contact, and Yamaki knew that Henry wanted to know why. His scowl transformed into a grin, and his eyes let up the glare. Henry understood, but wasn't quite sure he agreed.

Yamaki spoke into the microphone. "Most of you know me from the D-Reaper incident. For those of you who don't, I'll give you some basic background on what my job is. My name is Mitsuo Yamaki, and I work in heavy Digimon Analysis dealing with complex equation in binary code. For those of you taking the Digimon Analysis class, it'll be taught by a colleague of mine. Her name is Tally, and I expect you to behave for her. However, I am here today for another reason. Two days ago there was a flux in the net, a flux that hasn't been felt in over three years. The result you see here," he said as he stepped back and Ryudamon became the center stage. Ryudamon waved to everyone, unnerved by the silence. Yamaki gave Ryudamon the mike.

"My name is Ryudamon. A Rookie digimon of the Vaccine Attribute." she said, unsure of herself. "I'm of the warrior type and am an X Digimon as well." she stopped as a few people started to talk among themselves. Yamaki noticed her pause, and nudged her lightly in the back. She looked back at him, and he gave her a reassuring smile. She turned back around.

"An X Digimon is a digimon that's been affected with an X virus. Normally, the X virus kills a digimon, but there is an antidote called the X-Antibody. Those digimon who get infected by both can be considered both lucky and cursed. A lot of digimon don't trust us X's, especially not a digimon like me who was born with the X already in them. I was taken care of until I was a rookie, after which I fled to this world, and I'm now here." she said. She grinned, mischievously. "Any questions?" she asked. The crowd was silent for the first few seconds. A voice rang out.

"Can you show us your attacks?" it asked. There was a lot of murmuring of agreement.

Ryudamon grinned. She had been waiting for that one. "With pleasure." she said. Yamaki grinned, and two hay bales were set in the middle of the gym, both plastered with targets. Ryudamon stood a good fifty feet off, and faced them. "_Iajin!" _The metal spike flew straight into the middle of the target. "_Iajin!_" she cried again, this time making a perfect triangle around the middle circle.

A burst of applause rang through the room, and some more kids started asking a bunch of different questions. Ryudamon answered them the best to her ability. Naturally the one main question came up. 

"Are you partnered with anybody?" the kid asked.

Ryudamon shook her head, "No, I'm not partnered with anybody. However, it's not my choice to whom I'm partnered. That's something that the Sovereigns do, and they do it for their own reasons. More likely then not, I won't be partnered." Henry let out a small chuckle as a bunch of faces were suddenly depressed, complete with tears streaming down their faces. (Editor's Note: I added this, F.T. had something about 'down trot'… Hey, I'm paid to edit, not to translate!)

Kazu couldn't stand it anymore. Here stood this creature, mocking him! Some sort of holographic projection, or robot pretending to be a 'digimon'. He stood up suddenly, and the entire school watched him run up to Ryudamon, his foot flying towards her face. "Why do you go to such lengths to get us to believe a lie!" he screamed.

Ryudamon acted on battle reflexes, and caught his foot as it flew towards her. She was confused about this behavior. "What lie are you talking about?" she asked curiously, her head twitching almost like a dog.

"Bull," Kazu swore. He swung his body around and his other foot made contact into Ryudamon's head, throwing her back several feet. "It's all just a bunch of bull!" he yelled to the crowd. "Can't you see what lengths they'll go to make us believe a LIE!" he said furiously, "DIGIMON AREN'T REAL! The D-Reaper is not real! Chumley and the others are NOT tamers, and yet here the government continues to baby them like they're some sort of heroes or something!" He shouted in a fury to the students. "The digital world does not exist! Digimon don't EXIST!" He shouted. There was a dead silence over the entire gym.

Behind Kazu came a small whisper. "You're wrong!" Jeri said in tears. "YOU'RE WRONG!" she shouted, tears streaming down her face. Takato squeezed her hand for comfort. "Digimon are real... Leomon is real, and he died for me. I should know this better then anyone. How can you take that dream and just shatter it!" she bawled. "HOW!" she cried out.

"Because I won't live a lie!" Kazu screamed back.

The silence deepened. The wind outside seemed to settle into an eerie silence, and the noise of the cars gave a low rumbling. Every student held their breath. All the teachers were unsure of what to do. Ryudamon could be heard shuffling her feet. Yamaki's lighter made a click that reverberated around the room. Silence followed.

"Then Guardromon is a lie..." the small innocent voice of Henry's sister spoke. "Lopmon is a lie... we are a lie..." the words pierced the silence. Suzie glared with a women's scorn. "Guardramon is a lie..." (Editor's Note: One must ask where F.T. earned a "woman's scorn"…)

That single line seemed to cut Kazu hard. He stumbled back a few steps. Henry steadied him, grabbing onto his shoulders. "Even if it is all a lie…" He asked Kazu, staring him straight in the eye. "Isn't it worth it to keep onto the memories? Isn't it worth the whisper of hope?"

"NO!" Kazu shouted throwing Henry's hand off him. "I WON'T BELIEVE A LIE!"

There was a small bit of laughter from the tamers seating. Henry looked back to see Takato laughing. Takato's chuckles caught Kazu's attention, who looked at him befuddled.

"What's so funny?" Jeri asked, everyone else wondering the same thing. Then Kenta started laughing. "I don't get it, what's so funny?!" she demanded at the two. The pair responded by breaking out into even more laughter.

Takato grinned, getting a hold of himself for just a second. "It's... just..." he couldn't finish as he was starting to laugh even harder. Yamaki understood what they were laughing at, and had a few chuckles himself. Then Henry and Suzie started to laugh at well.

"Baihumon you!" Jeri freaked out, "What's so funny?!" she demanded in a women's fury. (Editor's Note: And again, F.T.'s odd choice of cursing comes into play, along with a "women's scorn".)

Kenta stopped laughing for a second and pointed his finger at Kazu, "Him... could you imagine what he would look like if Rika was here? A few Geniuses World records would be broken." he said.

Jeri started to burst out laughing, and it got to be contagious until the whole gym started laughing. Kazu felt as if all the laughter was directed at him. (Editor's Note: No Numemon Sludge, Sherlockmon. …I HATE YOU, F.T!) He ran out of the gym, the eyes of Ryudamon following him. The laughter continued, until the doors were slammed open. There was a great stir as a lady walked through with two men. Both had tranquilizer guns.

"It's over there!" she pointed. The men lowered their guns towards Ryudamon.

"Don't shoot!" Yamaki told the two men. (Editor's Note: Skookum Jim's last words…)

The lady turned to him, affixing him with a cold glare. "Excuse me, but on what grounds do you have permission to bring a wild and dangerous animal into a place were there are hundreds of children?" She asked in a tone that brought forth a feeling of sudden winter.

"None..." Yamaki told her slowly, lowering his head in defeat. She grinned and was about to order the two men to shoot, but Yamaki's voice stopped her. "I do, however, have permission under article 631 to bring a digimon to a public area. In fact, under article 693, it specifies that a digimon needs to be on school grounds if at all possible when a class about Digimon is going on. This is so that info can't be misled or misdirected by the teacher."

The women glared at him, then turned to the two men. "Shoot... NOW!" she ordered.

"Don't!" Yamaki shouted, but it was too late. The two tranquilizer darts were fired and were on a straight course for Ryudamon.

"KABUTO KENSHI!" Ryudamon shouted, and red light triangulated around her head, facing backwards. For an instant, it seemed as if time had stopped as all eyes watched the darts stop against the red light. Then the light came around and the two darts went flying back towards the shooters. The two men fell over with darts in their legs, solidly unconscious.

The women's voice was lost. A single kid from the crowd started to applaud, followed by another, and the chain got the whole school clapping for Ryudamon. She took a bow. "This is crazy!" the women shouted, and the applause stopped to listen to her. "You applaud this disgusting data for injuring a human being!" she roared. "You're all insane, this is madness."

All the kids grinned as she said that. "Madness... THIS IS HIGH SCHOOL!" they cried together. The women glared at Yamaki. (Editor's Note: AAHHHH!!! 300 REFERENCE!)

"This isn't over!" she snarled.

"Actually it is... or at least for six years." Yamaki told her.

The women eyes widened. "Let me see… Trespassing on private property, assault to a digimon with no provocation, attempted capture of a digimon. You're looking at five to six years." he told her.

The women voice was lost to her again. Yamaki just smiled at her. "Have a nice day, Mrs. Hawksho," he told her.

-

Kazu looked down at his watch as he walked through the park. It had been thirty minutes since he had left school. It would be out in a few minutes more. _What was that thing?_ Kazu wondered. _Could it really have been a digimon? No, get a hold of yourself Kazu, don't be losing it now. It could be an alien or some sort of mutated species. That's gotta be it, and they dressed it up to look and act like a digimon._ His argument didn't sound all that convincing, even to himself. He pushed the thought away, cursing himself in his mind for falling into a trap like that.

He wrapped his jacket around him a bit more as wind came by. He looked up to where his feet had carried him. There in front of him was the playground they used to play the digimon card game at. He touched it on the outside, and started to remember things. If the metal could speak… His first card game in it, the first game he won. When Takato beat him by digivolving to MetalTyranomon. The time Takato told him about his "digimon." 

"Stupid flashlights…" Kazu spat. In a fit of rage he left that spot and continued to walk, his mind full of different things. He thought about the past year, and all of the new friends he had made. Yet, for some reason, he knew that they were only his friends because he was good at skateboarding. He remembered giving his digimon cards away. It all felt so strange to him, to be thinking about this.

Seeing Ryudamon had really shaken him up though. "Could it be true?" he asked himself. He looked up at the sky. _Isn't it worth it to keep onto the memories? Isn't it worth the whisper of hope? _The words echoed in his mind.

_Then Guardromon is a lie..._

Kazu felt a tear creep down his cheek at the one simple fact. If it was true, then the whisper of hope wasn't there. If it wasn't true, then everything he had convinced himself over the past year was a lie.

"Oh Guardromon... forgive me." He sobbed into the wind.

-

Betamon X: alright, not a whole lot going on, but we needed to set up a few situation, so

Gomamon: we'll have more storyline development next chapter.

Editor: If I can survive to beta the next chapter…

Until then, R and R, and I hope you enjoy this.

Frozen Twins

Gomamon

Betamon X

P.S.

I would say thanks to Deering for Betaing... but as for his comments... you understand why I don't thank the little Devimon scum.


	7. Chapter 7 Hazards Roar

Dragon's Echo

Chapter 7

Hazard's Roar

Leviamon looked around the room. "You don't exactly overdo your throne room…" He noted to his sister.

Lilithmon looked down on her brother. "I suppose…" she said quietly, "I'm not quite as vain as some of our brothers." she said.

Leviamon chuckled as she said that. "Right, and I'm not the cockiest of the Demon Lords." He laughed sarcastically.

Lilithmon looked over at her brother, "Alright you've proved your point. So, how long are you going to stay here?" she asked, "Feeding you will cost me a fortune."

"It's not like you don't have one to spend…" Leviamon told her.

She rolled her eyes at his foolishness. "Just make sure you're out by three months." she said.

"Unless you take out Anubismon's favorite, I don't think that's going to happen." he plainly stated.

"GigaSeadramon hasn't been seen since before the D-Reaper. Last I heard, he was spending some time in the Dark Zone." she told her brother.

Leviamon chuckled. "And what am I supposed to do when he gets back? He'll put me back into the Dark Zone, and I would prefer not to go there." He looked over and saw a picture on the wall. It surprised him. "You keep that?" he asked, befuddled.

Lilithmon glared at him in reply, and he turned back to the picture. "It reminds me of what we once were." she said, reminiscing. In the picture were eight different digimon; him, his five brothers, Lilithmon and behind them all stood their "father", GranDracmon.

"We have fallen a long ways, haven't we?" Leviamon stated reflectively. "Do you think GranDracmon will ever return and unite us once again?" he asked.

Lilithmon laughed. "Maybe... that is if Belphemon doesn't get to him first. Too many of our brothers have started to think they're Armageddonmon or something."

Leviamon sighed. "Seeing that picture almost makes me think that we could return to our glory, back when we destroyed nine of the Royal Knights." he said.

Lilithmon grinned. "Yes, only Dukemon, Omegamon and AlforceVeedramon were left."

Leviamon grinned in reply. "Well, and Alphamon, but he hadn't shown up yet."

Lilithmon looked at the picture. "But… Our glory days are past." She heaved a reminiscent sigh.

Leviamon looked to see her back turned to her. He saw an opening, and knew it could cost him his life. His mind flashed through his past.

He remembered the days when GranDracmon was alive, when he himself took down Duftmon. He had been ruler over the seas in three of the quadrants, MetalSeadramon was the only thing that stood between him and being the ruler over the entire ocean. It was soon after that when he met GigaSeadramon and MetalSeadramon X. He told him to get out and if he ever caught him in the seas again, he would send him back to the Dark Zone. He had gotten out of the seas and into the sewers. He had helped fight the D-Reaper. After that his life had been kind of meaningless, going from Demon Lord to Demon Lords palace, residing there until he became so bored he moved somewhere else.

It wasn't until through his travels he met Beelzemon. They had fought, and ended up in the same exact stalemate as in Dragon Heart; Beelzemon ready to shove his claws through his brain, Leviamon ready to snap down killing him. They eventually came to a consensus, when Beelzemon told him of his redemption plan and his past. While the Demon Lords weren't the great warriors they were under GranDracmon, they were still the biggest Mafia out their. His plan was to take them down.

Leviamon was surprised to hear his own brother say that. Yet, the power he felt from him was almost as great as his own. It surprised him, to see one of the weakest rise up to become one of the most powerful Demon Lords. Leviamon had agreed to help him in his plan.

So, here he was; only Barbamon would be left after Lilithmon. Closing his eyes momentarily, he made his decision. His large jaws snapped towards his sister, catching her off guard. She was sucked into his mouth in an instant, but Leviamon stopped his attack as he felt her claws digging up into his skin.

"You would betray me!" Lilithmon raged in a fury.

Leviamon laughed as much as he could without killing them both. "You were already dead the moment Beelzemon got back from the human world, sister." he told her. "You would have killed me tonight if I hadn't gotten to you first, anyways. You may seem nicer on top then our brothers, but you're the cruelest one of them all."

"You would kill us both." she said slyly. "I thought you were scared of the Dark Zone."

Those words startled Leviamon, and fierceness appeared in his eyes. "Yes, I am afraid of the Dark Zone; but my fear is nothing to the thousands of innocent you cause fear in."

"You would sacrifice yourself for Digimon who won't even be thankful for your death! In fact, they will probably be celebrating it!" Her voice cracked with fear, which was soon replaced by rage. "You don't deserve the title of a Demon Lord!" she roared.

"No, maybe I don't, but neither do you sister. Neither do any of our brothers!" he roared back, his mouth coming down, and Lilithmon's claw jamming further into him. He ignored the pain, and bit off, "Only Beelzemon still deserves that title!" Lilithmon was covered in Leviamon's saliva.

His jaws started to slacken up, and Lilithmon had the fleeting thought she was going to get out alive. Leviamon slammed his jaws as hard as he could with a sickening thud. A Floramon came in to tell Lilithmon that Phan**tomon** was here. All she found were two digi-eggs, each with a Demon Lords crest on them.

-

-

-

Guilmon looked around and noticed that there was no one else on the road. He smelt a presence behind a tree, and turned towards it. He was about to call out a when a Black Spiral streaked towards Lopmon while in her trance. Guilmon slammed into her pushing her out of the way. As he rolled to safety, he looked behind him to see the Black Spiral strapped to his tail.

Terriermon came out from around the tree and faced his mate. He grinned and threw another Black Spiral. It caught her in the ear. Lopmon and Guilmon both struggled with the hold as Terriermon laughed, "I guess I was smart to grab a few Spirals when I tracked you guys down to Lucemon's place."

Terriermon's grin faded when he saw the Hazard Symbol start to light up. The Hazard symbol flashed manically. A stream of energy shot out from Guilmon and a red ball entrapped all three of the digimon.

Hazard flashed a deadly red, and Terriermon felt as Hazard forced its way into his body, the Dark Spore trying to fight it the entire way. He felt immense pain as the two powers merged together, and destroyed each other. He fell down, all traces of Dark and Hazard rid from his body.

Guilmon felt as Hazard purged his body from all the Dark traces. However, in order for Hazard's power to purge Terriermon, it had to exert the same amount of force on all three. The Hazard power swiftly destroyed the black spiral and the rest of the energy became active in Guilmon. Guilmon's eyes became red with fury and Hazard still flashed when the process was done.

Lopmon's body was wracked in pain as Hazard fought against the Black Spiral. She twitched as Hazard ran through her data, with the same force as it had Terriermon, but this time, it didn't have a Dark Spore to fight.

She screamed in pain as Hazard melded with her Digi-Core. It ran through her data and became apart of her. All of her skin data that was pink became red. The Hazard sign appeared on her head, each triangle surrounding one of her spikes, with the middle triangle connecting them all.

The three digimon dropped to the ground. Terriermon lifted his head, barely conscious. "Guilmon..." he spoke, exhausted, "Blo**ss**omon has your kid... your egg hatched... and Blo**ss**omon is holding him hostage..." That was all Terriermon was able to get out, before he landed unconscious.

Guilmon's eyes went wide. His child was in trouble. His kid was in trouble. Hazard raged through him as these thoughts passed through his mind. He became concerned on only one thing... Revenge. He let it engulfed him, consume him. He roared, his head now three stories high, his powerful wings ready to speedily destroy everything, his tail ready to pierce anything.

He flapped high in the sky and sped towards his home.

-

-

-

Zhuqiaomon was surprised when his connection with Lopmon was cut. He knew somebody else had forced it, for she was too loyal. Only when it came to her Tamer or her Tamers orders did she ever disobey him.

He concentrated on her, and his twelfth Digi-Core flashed red, blocking out everything about her from him. He was surprised and looked at the core, the Hazard Sign blazing a bright red on it. (1)

"By Azulongmon's beard." he swore.

"Majiramon!" he cried out.

The Dragon Deva quickly appeared. "You called, Sovereign?" he asked, noticing the fury in the Phoenix's voice.

"Something has happened to Lopmon. I need you to go be the South representative at the Black Desert. Do whatever Ebowumon's representative requires of you until I personally come and relieve you of your post. Do you understand?" He snapped.

"Master, I'm sure Lopmon is fine, you don't need to bother yourself with babying her." Majiramon coldly stated. "Why not send Mihairamon to her?"

Zhuqiaomon turned on Majiramon. He spoke not with the fury of the Dark Zone, but with a low tone of anger. "Do not mistake worry for babying... Scale scum... I have chosen you because I can trust you to carry out this duty. Do not make me think otherwise!"

Majiramon stepped back, then bowed low. He left without saying a word.

Zhuqiaomon took off from his palace, heading towards the direction of the amount of Hazard power that had appeared.

-

-

-

Yamaki was studying the X virus, when he leaned back in his chair. In the past three days, they had covered twelve schools. He and Ryudamon had visited six, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Riley, Tally, Steven and Koromon X visited another six schools. Eight high schools, two middle schools, an elementary and they even got to a college.

It was a Saturday, which left them bereft of a school to attend, so Yamaki had decided to try and figure the X virus out. He almost had it too. The X virus didn't actually harm digimon; in fact it tried to expand their power. It did this by adding a third number, an X digit. However, this caused for the data to fall in on itself, destroying the digimon. The X anti-body prevented this, by adapting the data to be able to accept a third digit. The problem came in what the third digit was however. If it was a two or anything higher, it would fit, but when it came to the X Data in the X anti-body, then it would become an anomaly.

Likewise, if the digit was in fact a negative one, making the system a negative binary, then you would end up with data that fit, but you end up with double negatives, which means that the ones would become positive. He looked at a piece of code, each with the different form.

10X00XX10111X0XX1X00001X01X1000101X

10200221011120221200001201210001012

10-100[(-1-1)(1)10111-10[(-1-1)(1)1-100001-101-11000101-1

He stood up and looked around the room. Riley got his attention "Yamaki... we have a problem. There's a stream of data, a Digimon that we've seen before in the digital world... only briefly though."

Yamaki ran over to her computer. "By Ebowumon's forest." He cursed.

"Everybody!" he commanded the Monster Makers attention. "Shut down your servers, cut all connections, isolate every computer!" he shouted. "Riley, I want yours on to try and get some data on that thing, everybody, shut your connections with Riley's computer now!"

"Yamaki? Everything we've worked on today will be destroyed!" Dolphin protested, confused and not understanding the situation.

"If we don't shut down, we could lose everything." Yamaki said curtly. All of their eyes went wide.

Everyone immediately started shutting down. Riley quickly proceeded with some scans, and Yamaki plugged the data into a palm pilot. He ran over to his computer and started to de-connect everything.

-

-

-

Yamashowzu looked down at the digimon they had already captured. They had only captured half of what he wanted by this point, but he was surprised they had gotten that many; the program that was working was incredible. Of course it was; he _had_ designed it himself. He smiled as he looked a Drimogemon. This creature would increase production in mines ten fold! It was perfect.

He had a problem with Yamaki's recent moves, however. In this game of chess they were playing, going to the schools would be a very powerful and useful weapon. Especially if digimon can't come back until another ten years, when that generation will make up a lot of the voting population.

Obviously Yamaki had no clue what he was doing. It would be easy to sway the population towards using digimon. Release a few out into the wild to do some damage, wait a few days while the army tried effortlessly to deal with them, then have their enslaved digimon go out and deal with them. He'll be the hero for being the leader of this project, and Yamaki will be humiliated. Digimon were not people, they were simply data trying to take on the intelligence of people.

"Sir!" A scientist came up to him, "There's something wrong with the net." he told him.

Yamashowzu walked over to the computer, "A Digimon." He said curiously as he sat down and started to type some things into the computer.

"Its stats are off the charts sir." The man said.

"I see that." Yamashowzu snapped.

"Some of the men are worried about it though. They are afraid that unless we shut down now, all of our data will be erased."

Yamashowzu glared at him, "Through all of our firewalls and defenses?" he demanded.

"Yes sir. The strength of the digimon, you see it. If it decided to attack, it could overwhelm are defenses in mere seconds sir." The man said nervously. "On top of that, parts of the net have already gone down. The whole Internet community is a panic. Places that are supposedly safe just drop out. All of MSN is gone sir. Disappeared, and they can't seem to even find the data for their files."

"A company's line of defense and _my_ line of defense are completely different. Understand that, soldier." Yamashowzu told him curtly. He stood up. "I want this digimon caught! We have a holding cell large enough for it. Prepare cell 51, double up on firewall thickness, I want this creature captured and sedated in the next twenty hours. Do I make myself clear?!"

"Sir yes sir!" came the respond. Yamashowzu looked back at the worker.

"Do you still have questions?" he demanded.

The solider stared, "Sir, I think this is the worse thing we can possibly do." he stated. "I would like to be relieved of my post. If that creature gets loose, Kami help us all."

Yamashowzu glared he nodded to two guards. "You want to relieve yourself of your post?" he questioned. The soldier nodded, "Fine then." He indicated to the two guards, "They will help you fill out your paperwork that you may get out of here as quickly as possible." he said.

The solider followed the two guards into a room. The secretary handed him a folder with all of the information in it. He sat down with a pen ready to start filling it out. He opened it and looked at the first sheet.

AD for Hozaka Roshi

Accidental Death

We must regrettably say that Hozaka Roshi died on December 19th of 2007. His ashes have been collected and put into a jar which will be delivered to his family. His body was burnt to a crisp when he heroically tried to stop a Meramon from escaping. We regret his death, and honor him.

Signed

Yamashowzu

The man's eyes went wide in horror as he read it. He looked up, and the last thing he saw was his wife and kids at home, left without a dad as his life flashed before his eyes. The bullet entered into his skull and he was dead instantly.

The bodyguards picked up his body and brought down three levels to the crematory. The man's ashes were never delivered to his family.

-

-

-

Warg and Melga were flying with Hideto on Melga's back. They had kept a pretty good pace. Warg looked behind him.

He moved closer to the other two. "We've got company." he told them.

Hideto looked back, he checked his two digivices. The nice thing about having two was that it doubled the range of which he could scan a digimon. "It's one of your species, Warg." he said.

Warg looked at his partner, "Well? What do we do?"

Hideto looked back again, "Just keep going same speed. We don't need to worry about them." he said.

Melga wasn't so sure though. He activated his upgraded sensor, and as it read, he almost bucked Hideto off of him. As it was, his partner slammed into Melga's back with his head. Warg looked over in surprise. "You two alright?" he asked.

Melga looked at him. "Climb four thousand feet, the winds there should be strong enough to prevent anybody from listening in on us."

Hideto leaned forward on Melga's back, "You mind telling us why you plan to kill me?" he asked.

Melga swore under his breath, he hadn't thought about what would happen to Hideto if they did manage to climb that high. He took a breath, "A couple of things. According to my sensor, there is a BlackWarGreymon hiding in the shadow of the WarGreymon."

"What do you expect?" Hideto asked, "BlackWarGreymon's species isn't exactly all that well liked. especially after what happened a few years back."

Melga looked up at his partner with his eyes, "that's only a very small portion of it. I wouldn't be so freaked out if it was just that. It's the rider who's on it. His data is ninety percent the same as Taichi Yagami's."

Warg looked up, "it's only ninety percent though..."

Melga looked over at his friend while they were still flying, the two digimon and the human were slowly catching up. "Since the time we first met Hideto to now, his data has changed twelve percent, because of puberty and a few physical scars and such."

"What about someone related?" Hideto asked.

Melga eyes moved to the top of his socket to look at Hideto. "Rei and Neo's total data have a difference of over eighty percent; most of that is because of Rei's accident, otherwise the number would be around fifty percent." Melga stated, "And it couldn't be a twin, even then the percentage of different data is still twenty-five or so."

Hideto looked back. "Stop. If this really is Taichi... then luck has granted us the greatest gift it could ever possibly give.

Tai saw the two megas and their partner slow down. He was glad, they really needed to get back, but he figured that Michael and Mimi could hold the fort down... that is if they weren't staring into each others eyes the whole time.

He hoped off WarGreymon as they landed, the human and his two partners waiting for them. He looked at the human, and recognized his face somewhere, but couldn't exactly place it. He knew these three were from the north, but he never had met anyone from there, so where had he seen it before?

Hideto couldn't believe what he was seeing. In front of him was Taichi, he was older, his hair messier, larger, and his trademark goggles were a little beaten up, but there was no doubt that this was Taichi. He glared at him.

Tai almost stepped back when the human's eyes met his. The kid was obviously older then him, even possibly older then Joe. Tai bowed, "I do not mean to disturb you from your journey, I just wanted to thank you for the supplies." he said.

He looked up and saw the kids fist slam into his face. WarGreymon immediately went to help his partner, but BlackWarGreymon put his claw in front of him. "The kid's Digimon didn't even flinch. This is something between that boy and Tai." he told him.

WarGreymon conceded, after a few moments.

Hideto was _furious_. "We don't see you for over eight years, and all you can tell me is that your thankful for nothing!" he glared.

Tai got up, the kids hit, stance and hairdo reminded him too much of Matt, that his vision started to cloud. "What the Dark Zone are you talking about...?" he demanded, leaving the boys name in question.

"Hideto." The kid answered for him.

"Hideto?" The name ran through his head, but he couldn't quite remember where.

"Don't pull this Numemon sludge!" Hideto shouted at him, his foot went towards Taichi's face, but was blocked at the last second by Tai's fist.

Tai glared. "Who are you, to tell me what to do and what _not_ to do?"

Hideto stepped back, as a horror entered his eyes. "What's happened to you Taichi?"

Tai was surprised to hear this stranger, this… _Northerner_ use his full name. "How do you know my full name? Not even all of the twelve Japanese _destined_ know my name."

Hideto looked down in defeat, "So Neo was right." Tai was startled at that name as it rang through him, just like Hideto's had. "You have lost all of your memories, haven't you?"

"What are you talking about?" Tai asked.

Hideto looked up, defeat still present in his eyes. "You don't remember anything? Not Neo, not Lord HolyAngemon, not Sigma... do you even remember Zero, Taichi? Or Rei?" he asked.

Each name penetrated Taichi. "Rei... I know her... who is she?" he asked to himself, his memory straining past to something he know, but couldn't remember.

Hideto eyes went down cast, "I'm sorry... Taichi. You don't remember?" he asked.

"Remember what?" he asked.

Hideto couldn't say anymore, it brought up too many painful memories. "Rei… died, Taichi... she died just two weeks after we got back from the digital world. The strain had been too much for her... and then you disappeared, no note, no goodbye... nothing except the comforting words from Ebowumon that you were alive." Hideto glared at Taichi. "Did Rei die for nothing, Taichi?!" he demanded, "Everything you and she had shared... you just threw it all away!" He was in a rage. "BY EBOWUMON'S FOREST, TAICHI! Do we matter to you so little that you would forget everything?!"

Hideto spun around with a kick, catching Tai in the jaw and sending him flying. Tai frantically rolled away as Hideto's foot came crashing down where Tai's skull had been a second ago. Tai rolled backwards up into a standing position. "Don't take your pain out on me... Hideto... you loved her just as much as I had..." he shot back, "but in her last seconds of her life... where were you... huh?" Taichi demanded, "Where were you when Sora called out for you?! Don't take the pain of what you did to yourself on me!" (2)

Hideto stopped himself, as fear and denial he had suppressed boiled to his head, an overwhelming torrent of emotions. He broke down into tears.

Black was looking in the direction of the South Quadrant. When Hideto had hit Tai on the Jaw, he had felt a unfamiliar power radiate in the South Quadrant. It surprised him that he could feel it all the way out here…

Black turned to Melga, "Melga... Type Loop Scanner, twelve point precision... with power locater." he told the metal wolf.

Melga was surprised. "How do you know I even have that?" he asked.

Black chuckled darkly. "Because I installed it." (3)

Warg and Melga were surprised to hear that and looked over the two digimon. Both of their armor was done by expert hands, with little oddities that wouldn't be on a normal WarGreymon, like how the inside of Black's helmet was lined with Red Chrome Digizoid, and both of their claws were reinforced with agility enhancing Light Blue Chrome Digizoid.

Melga turned and activated his sensors towards the spot Black indicated, it ran for about twenty seconds, and then his eyes went wide. He turned around to Hideto. "Hideto... Hazard's activated!"

Hideto turned around, all emotions suppressed in a second, a battle hardened soldier ready to act. He turned back to Taichi. "We could really use your help…" he said. (4)

Taichi smiled, "I guess I could spend some time catching up... and I want to know what happened to Zero." he said with a hint of fun in his voice.

WarGreymon chuckled. "Getting rid of me already? I thought you'd at least give me a chance against Zero…" Tai wondered how Agumon knew Zero; then again, he probably _was_ Zero. Both of them grinned, their memories of the time that they had entered into Piximon's training restored.

Hideto stood on Omegamon's shoulders. "You ready?" he asked.

Tai grinned, and brought up his digivice that resembled the digivice of courage. "Biomerge Digi-Evolution Activate!" he cried as he and BlackWarGreymon combined. Tai felt himself in the familiar presences of the Silver Sphere, as he called out the name. "Gaiomon!"

-

-

-

Majiramon took off, his body rolling in the air, flying towards his destination. There was a cool wind, just perfect to be enjoyable, except for the fact that he was flying into it. That and that his anger was hot enough to warm said wind several degrees.

_Lopmon... precious Lopmon_. He snarled to himself._ Lopmon this and Lopmon that. He treats her like she's his mate or something. I don't understand why she gets so much attention._

A little voice went off inside his head._ She is the only girl. It's not surprising that he protects her so._

_Protection, give me a break, he babies her to the extreme. Lopmon, here, have an some extra bits to go and do whatever you want. Take a break from guarding the Gate, we can just have somebody else do it._ Majiramon told himself. He took a deep breath, this wasn't getting him anywhere. It did vent some anger though. He was just so mad at her.

When the other Deva's are in danger, Zhuqiaomon just lets them fend for themselves and recreates the egg. When Lopmon was in danger, he goes directly himself to try and save her. It ticked Majiramon off._ If any of the rest of us had turned traitor, he would have destroyed us instantly. When Lopmon turned against us, he just took away her Ultimate form and sent one of our own brothers to try and kill her, even though she was being protected by a Mega._

Majiramon's anger increased as he flew towards the Dark Desert. (5)

-

-

-

Koromon X and Ryudamon were playing with a bunch of kids in a soccer game; not surprisingly, in a park only a few blocks away from Yamaki's office building. 

Koromon X leapt in the air hitting the ball with his head, body and face. "Come on all of you Numemon! You're going to let a little X in-training beat you all?" He demanded, laughing his head off.

Koromon X arrived on a player from the opposite team. The young digimon leapt up and passed the ball to Suzie. Suzie slipped around another player and shot towards the goal. Ryudamon ran in front of the ball quickly, and leapt up in the air. "Kabuto Kenshi!" she cried, as a red light flared from her head. The ball hit the light, and the light folded onto the ball, making it streak towards the other goal, and scoring.

"Come on, Ryudamon." Takato said laughing, "You're so cheap."

Ryudamon grinned. "I can't help it if I have an attack that is so useful." she said.

Koromon X was a little madder then Takato, however; he ran, well… _hopped_, towards Ryudamon. The rookie digimon turned around to see a large pink wad coming straight at her. "BUBBLE BLOW!" he shouted, a flow of bubbles streaming from his mouth.

"Kabuto Kenshi!" Ryudamon attempted. The light flared, but the bubbles went right through and popped on her, causing her to stumble back a few steps.

"Eat Numemon sludge!" Koromon X cried, as he rammed into her. She stumbled back a few steps, only to get a face full of Koromon poo.

Ryudamon wiped the junk from her face, and was about to say something when Suzie's, Henry's, Steven's (who most people called Takashi now just to piss him off), Ryo's and Takato's digivices went off.

The two digimon looked over, and looked up to the sky, feeling a power and a presence. Koromon X's eyes went wide as he recognized the presence. "By Azulongmon's beard..." Koromon cursed. He turned to all of the kids, "Everyone get out of here now!" (6) He yelled. He turned towards Steven, "He's awake!" he shouted.

"Baihumon." Steven swore. "Not now... not yet!" he shouted.

All the tamers looked at each other, only Ryo had a puzzled look on him. Takato's eyes were wide with fear. "Is there something I'm missing?" Ryo asked.

Henry looked up from his digivice. "Yeah, there's something you missed." Henry turned to Takato, who was pretty shaken up. "Takato!" he said urgently to him.

Takato was startled to hear his name spoken. He knew what had happened; Megidramon had come back. It tore him apart, the great demon dragon that had almost destroyed the world, the thing he had created, was back. He could feel Guilmon's anguish, his pain, his fear.

Yet, there was something he noticed; every last one of the Tamers was looking at him to lead them. To tell them what to do. They were putting their trust in him, even after the Megidramon incident.

Takato steadied himself with a deep breath. "Henry... what's going to happen next."

Henry was ready for this question, "By the amount of data in this area, I would say a bioemergence."

Takato took this into account. "Henry, you and Ryo get all the kids around here out of here If there's going to be a bio-emergence, we don't want anyone around here. Suzie, run and grab Yamaki. He should have some way to combat the bio-emergence.

"While you do… what?" Ryo asked, none of the group noticing a VERY familiar symbol appear in the sky.

"While I try to hold off the incoming digimon at this spot with Ryudamon, Steven, and Koromon X." Takato said.

The Hazard sign in the sky glowed a dark red, and there was a definite erupting of power and sound that shook the whole island of Japan. All the Tamers slammed their hands up against their ears to prevent the sound from exploding their ear drums.

It took them about a minute to recover, when something very familiar appeared in the sky.

"By Daemon's blood... it's ... it's ..."

"It's the digital world." Ryudamon finished.

_So… what other color would the Hazard be? Cotton candy pink?_

_Emo, emo man… I want to be, an emo man! Sung to the tune of "Macho Man"_

_OMG WTF N00BL37????////!!!!!1111 I guess the Agumon's from the last chapter make an appearance… Who'da guessed this plot twist? _

_Wow… F.T. is in-freakin'-capable of spelling the word soldier._

_Mmmm… Dark Dessert… almost like asking about the Dark side and cookies… Like it's a very dark chocolate cake…_

_F.T.'s inability to spell correctly comes into play… "Everybody, get out of her now!" was what was originally written. I'll let you come up with the possible… connotations…_

Betamon X: Alright.. we know it's been a long time… and yes, we will kill our Beta. We are sorry, we got this load of tripe to him over six weeks ago…

Gomamon: (Glares hard at Beta).. Please send as much hatemail as you possibly can to Chibi-ben. I mean as MUCH HATEMAIL AS YOU POSSIBLE CAN!\

I really don't have much to say right now, since it was six weeks ago I wrote this, so other then I'm Rei thing, I can't think of anything to controversial…

Betamon X: … … yeah… were in enough trouble as it is for that one…. Well just quiet up before we get into even more trouble.

Frozen Twins

Betamon X

Gomamon 

P.S. For having my chapter for six weeks, my Beta really didn't to a good job. Going back over it.. he had If spelled as Uf.


	8. Chapter 8 Nightmare's Amplitude

Dragon's Echo

Chapter 8

Nightmare's Amplitude

Rika Nonaka had just finished getting dressed in the hospital room. She had felt the surge of energy and knew what it meant; the action had started again, and by the signal in the sky, she would bet Renamon that Megidramon was back. A sound-wave registering Mach 4 boomed across the sky, and the windows in her room shattered, sprinkling glass across the floor. She had thankfully been able to get her hands over her ears slightly and block out a bit of the sound, but she still wasn't able to get up for another three minutes. She shakily climbed to her feet, grabbed her digivice and headed off.

The hospital was in chaos, nurses and doctors were everywhere trying to make sure no one had gotten injured from the electrical surge. (1) Rika immediately decided that the elevators were going to be too packed to try and use them. She dashed to the stairs and began running down them. She looked up at the clock as she went down a level.

11:45

She continued down, passing a few nurses on their way up to help out a few patients. As she reached the next floor, something caught her eye.

1:23

She stared. She knew it hadn't taken that long to get down that one set of stairs, she would have been surprised if it said 11:46.

She descended another flight.

12:19.

"Baihumon it." She swore, "We've got a problem." She looked out the window in the stairwell into the sky; she saw the Digital World.

Rika's head throbbed to a deep, resonating beat. It got worse, and worse, louder and louder, she could hear her eardrums pounding against her head. Her ears hurt with a pain that she didn't think she ever had felt before. It was worse than even the loneliness she had experienced before and when she first was partnered up with Renamon.

Rika collapsed on the floor in the stairwell of the hospital, flat on her back and clawing at her ears, screaming in pain. (2)

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"Sir..." Riley said cautiously.

Yamaki stared at the data coming through; it told him too much, and yet, not enough. He looked around, the Monster Makers all looking to him. "Alright... we all know what this means..."

Mr. Wong stood up. "Yamaki, I volunteer. I know my kids will be there."

Shibumi stood up. "That is probably the best idea. We can gather info and try to fight it from Riley's computer while you, Riley and Jenrya go and fight them."

Yamaki clicked his lighter. "... an In-training and a Rookie... both X's... against...?"

"Two champions and an ultimate, sir." Riley reported.

Yamaki looked up. "Alright, everybody, lets do this. Dolphin... I want you to alert the army about this, Shibumi... can you lock this thing up?"

"I can try, but at the power levels being exerted, I don't think I can." He told him.

Yamaki nodded. "Alright, let's go."

Shibumi plopped down in Riley's chair, and started to type. "Azulongmon's beard." he swore. There had been a surge of data power through the digital world, one strong enough to rip between both worlds.

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Renamon arched her back in pain. Megidramon's roar had been heard throughout all the South. He was so strong that his roar alone could wipe out rookie digimon. At this distance, it didn't kill her, but it hurt like nothing she had ever experienced before.

She cried out in pain, but Gomamon and Jyou could hardly stand the pain themselves. They could do nothing for her.

Renamon felt a familiar energy flow through her. She recognized it, and instantly all of her pain faded. Even the pain in her back, in fact she felt stronger then before.

_My mate..._

Renamon was startled as she breathed hard lying on the ground.

_I'm sorry... our child is in trouble._

Renamon recognized the voice as Guilmon's, but there was something different about it.

_I know I should be there for you; forgive me, for this power that I send you is the best I can do, for now._

Renamon felt Guilmon's presence fade. She stood up and looked at her hand. There, on one of her gloves, the Inyo no longer stood; replacing it was the Digital Hazard.

Renamon was startled, and then, to add more to her surprise, she found herself with everything blackening in her environment.

"Renamon?" Rika said carefully, her back to the Kitsune's back.

Renamon smiled in hearing her Tamer's voice. "Rika." she said softly.

Rika let out a smile on the other side. "You know what this means... I mean, being able to contact each other."

Renamon nodded solemnly. "Yes... the barrier has been broken."

"More then broken... your world has appeared in our sky... please, what just happened? Why did the barrier break? Why did I hear Guilmon's voice in my head? What _power_ was he talking about?" Rika questioned.

Renamon looked up, her nose pointing off into the infinities. "Megidramon is back..."

"And you're Guilmon's mate." Rika finished. "Then this power he was talking about… is the Hazard."

Renamon held her gloved paw behind her other paw in shame. "…Yes…."

"..." Rika was silent, the unspoken question lingering in the air.

"I do not know Rika... I do not know." Renamon answered her.

Rika nodded. "We have a lot of work to do."

Renamon nodded.

Rika grabbed Renamon's paw with her hand, still facing back to back. The move surprised Renamon. "It's good to know you're alright, Renamon."

Renamon was startled, but then a small smile crept across her face, "You too Rika..." and with that, their shadow talking ceased.

Rika let go of the railing she had used for support and stood up, her hair falling back, the rubber-band snapping. Rika felt a surge of power, a desire to protect one's loved ones, and the power to do it. Her back was healed completely, her senses had been heightened, her muscles had grown, her endurance increased… This was Hazard.

Rika walked out of the room. Walking up to a doctor who was looking at a clipboard, she brusquely commanded, "All of the electronic instruments can't be trusted."

The man looked up, utterly confused. "Huh?" was all that could be uttered.

"The instruments, anything electrical can't be trusted. The Digital World is in chaos and it's affecting the real world." Rika stated, with a hint of anger in her voice.

The man looked at her. Who was this girl? Probably an escapee from the psychiatric ward. The thought made him chuckle; he didn't have to deal with anything else at that moment, so he figured he might as well get this girl back to wherever she needed to be. "Look, we don't have time for this… do you have any proof of your claim?"

Rika was starting to get ticked. "Proof? Didn't you just hear that sonic boom? It ripped the worlds apart! You can see the digital world in the sky! As well as the fact that your electronic clocks in the stairwell are all reading different times!"

The doctor raised his eyebrow. That was definitely not the response he had expected; he had noticed the electrical surge a few moments ago, but not a sonic boom. He was about to say something when he noticed something on her waist. It was a digivice. "You're a Tamer?" he asked, surprised.

Rika snarled as her eyes flared red. "What's your point? You have to let everyone know that the instruments can't be trusted; you could lose people's lives!"

Now the doctor wasn't an expert on data protein conversion or anything, but he had read the papers on it. _This girl is sensitive to data shock waves as well as regular waves, and by the accounts of that surge, she shouldn't even be standing right now, much less getting angry at me._ His thoughts drifted. He shook himself, and realized what the girl was saying.

"Alright," he said, "I'll get on it."

Rika nodded, still mad that it took the doctor so long to catch on. On her digivice a very familiar sign blazed on the screen; one with four triangles, three connected to the middle triangle. Over the intercom Rika heard the doctor's voice as she was almost down the second floor. _Attention all personnel; this is not a drill or a joke. All of the electrical equipment can NOT be trusted. I repeat, the electrical equipment can't be trusted. Everything must be done by hand as of now until further notice. If you need a reason, look outside. The only thing electrical that may be trusted is a standard calculator._

The doctor was worried. He knew most of the doctors wouldn't do it, and of the few who did do it, even fewer would understand. He was also worried about using even a calculator, but they didn't really have much of a choice if everything was to be done by hand. Hopefully their data levels were small enough to not be affected. He was resting a lot of stuff on hope, but it had to work, or the amplitude of this nightmare that was about to ensue would be a whole lot worse.

The message went through the hospital. A few doctors who had also read some data protein papers understood, and quickly explained the situation to the nurses. The smarter ones sent their nurses to explain to the doctors who didn't get it, as to why everything needed to be done by hand. Many doctors brushed the announcement off, and continued to use the machines. Seven patients died that day due to misreading the machines.

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Megidramon was enraged; he could feel the Hazard coursing through him. His own employer kidnapped his own child. He could not forgive; would not forgive. His massive wings carried him along the currents; digimon that were lucky enough to see the avatar of rage, went into dragon-induced fear. Digimon unlucky enough to hear his roar of pain and hate? Digitamasized instantly.

Guilmon's thoughts were consumed with worry for his child. Was he alright? What kind of digimon was he? Would he himself be a good parent? Was he safe? Better yet, did Renamon know yet? With that thought, some of his worry changed into fear for Renamon.

Guilmon reached out to his mate, and felt her pain. Her back was causing her agony as well as her ears from his roars. Hate turned into guilt; he didn't want her to hurt because of him, so a thought came to him. He entered Renamon's mind, and filled her with the Digital Hazard.

Guilmon felt his mate's pain abate. He smiled as he felt a connection between them, one stronger then they had before. Now, the Hazard connected them.

Guilmon saw the town ahead, and soon a battle rage like none he had ever felt before entered his mind.

Megidramon let out a battle cry as he landed, the great gusts from his wings leveling buildings, digitama's strewn everywhere. Rubbish flitted about everywhere, a few digimon popped out of the wreckage.

"By Azulongmon's beard." an Andromon cursed.

"It's Megidramon!" A Vermillimon said fear lacing his voice.

A few other digimon popped out of the wreckage, including S**orc**erymon. "In the Dark Zone…" he swore.

The Vermillimon took off in the other direction, the Andromon glaring at the escaping back of the coward. "Are we to just let our home be destroyed without a fight?!" he demanded, "Are we to let this beast destroy our homes, children, and wives without anything so much as a second thought?"

"NO!" came the cry. S**orc**erymon shook his head, knowing that none of them would survive if they fought Megidramon.

He kneeled onto the ground and prayed. "Forgive us, Megidramon." He stood back up, his staff raised at the Demon Dragon.

Megidramon saw the digimon get up, and assume battle formation. "You are not my opponentssss, I do not wisssh to dessstroy you." He hissed through his rage.

The Andromon laughed bitterly. "A demon such as you not wanting to destroy innocent digimon? You lie!" he yelled. He ran straight at Megidramon, his arm blade ready. He leapt with a kick towards Megidramon. The Great Dragon lazily blocked with his arm blade. Andromon leapt off, his attack fully charged, "LIGHTING BLAD…" was all he managed to call before he gasped. Megidramon's tail was embedded in him.

Megidramon took his tail out of the android, his metal body clattering to the ground, digitamasizing instantly. Megidramon's eyes traced over the rest of them.

S**orc**erymon stepped up, his staff pointed at Megidramon. "Who is your opponent?" he demanded.

Megidramon looked at him, and then laughed. S**orc**erymon remained unflinching. The Great Dragon leapt into the air, this time careful enough not to cause a wind storm with his mighty wings.

S**orc**erymon watched as Megidramon landed in the warehouses, flattening them.

A Coelamon came over to him. "What now?" he asked.

S**orc**erymon shook his head. "We pray... that's all we can do."

Megidramon landed in the warehouses, crushing three of them. He shot forward like a viper going in for the kill and smashed through another three warehouses before he arrived at his destination. Megidramon ripped the roof of the building and tossed it aside. Blo**ss**omon looked up in horror at the Great Dragon.

"What... What is this?" She demanded.

Megidramon glared. "Where is he?!" he roared.

Blo**ss**omon was overcome by dragon-induced fear and could not move. Here she was, for the first time in eras, seeing death coming towards her.

Megidramon was about to yell at her again when a small little voice piped up. "Papa?" it asked. Megidramon looked down to see a little purple digimon named Dorimon looking up at him. Megidramon smiled and let his massive hand rest on the ground. Dorimon climbed up his dad's hand and up onto the top of his head where the Hazard symbol rested.

Blo**ss**omon realized that Megidramon was Guilmon. It still didn't do anything for her dragon-induced paralysis. In fact, it only increased it.

Megidramon looked down on the quivering ultimate. His tail lashed around her in the blink of an eye and she was tossed into the sky. "Your crimes belong to the Hazard!" Megidramon roared. As Blo**ss**omon fell, Megidramon opened his gaping maw, and swallowed. The saliva of the Demon Dragon digitamasized her instantly as she entered his mouth. Her egg fell down into his stomach, where her data was absorbed and used to fuel the Hazard. (3)

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Ryudamon rolled out of the way as Pteradonmon released a missile. Henry and Ryo had been able to get everybody out of the area in time, but even with Koromon X digivolving to Betamon X, they were having a tough time fighting this thing.

Pteradonmon swooped back for another round. "Digi-modify! Data Collection, activate!" Takashi cried.

Betamon X waited until the armor was within range, and leapt from a tree. "Beta Slugger!" He cried, slicing through one of Pteradonmon's wings. Betamon X landed on the far side of the digimon, his back turned and available. The digimon released another missile.

"Betamon watch out!" Ryudamon cried as she leapt in front of him. "KABUTO KENSHI!" she screamed.

The missile slammed into the red light from her gem, and reversed itself towards Pteradonmon. The right wing where Betamon had attacked earlier blew to pieces as the missile collided, sending Pteradonmon flying into the ground. The armor digimon shook itself off from the attack and got up, it's missiles charged.

Ryudamon was breathing hard. _Baihumon it. _She swore mentally. _That attack takes too much out of me. I was barely able to get that last move off… _ She thought, feeling the strain of the defensive attack. (4)

"You alright Betamon?" She asked. Betamon turned around to her, a smug smile on his face. "Yeah... but that wasn't needed." he told her.

"Huh?" She asked… before Betamon fell apart into a mere bit of water. "The Dark Zone!" she swore, surprised.

She heard Betamon's laugh from behind Pteradonmon, "Not quite, but close." he said, "It's a technique I've learned from my twin. I can take data, turn it into water and manipulate it so it looks like me."

"It takes years and years of practice, though." Takashi told her. "To be able to manipulate data like that is no easy task."

Betamon grinned, "But Mon, is it worth it." he said. He scratched a few signs into the ground, and a large amount of water sprang from the ground in front of him. He leaned back on to his hind feet, calling out the attack name. "Double Current!" he shouted as he jumped through the water with his 10,000 Volts attack full blown. The electrical and water currents mixed with each other, making Betamon become a deadly flying electrified missile.

The Pteradonmon barely had the time to squawk before it was slammed into by Betamon. It Digitamasized instantly.

Betamon collapsed on the ground, exhausted. Takashi slashed an energy boost card through his D-arc and Betamon lifted himself onto his feet. "You two alright?" Takato asked the two digimon.

"Yeah." Ryudamon told him. "I'm worn out though, and by Betamon's appearance, I would say he is, too."

Betamon was breathing heavily. "Give me a break... I just digivolved and data manipulation takes a lot out of you…"

Takashi looked up. "Do you guys think you can go another round?" he asked worried.

All four looked up to see Etamon coming down. (5) (6)

"Hey all you digi-destined... listen up!" Etamon started to sing as his feet hit the ground from the light that had carried him between the worlds, "I'm Etamon here, ready to set up my Dark Network again! This time, in your human world!"

Takato stared in disbelief. "Etamon... as in THE Etamon?"

"So I see you've heard of me... You little twerp... Now, where are those kids who defeated me, I want to get my revenge!" He sang/told them.

Takashi's eyes went wide. "Those kids who defeated you... are you talking about Tai?"

"So it looks like you know his name! Now tell me where he is before I have to kill you." Etamon belted out the first part, before become dangerously cold by the second.

Betamon stood in front of Takashi. "You touch either one of these humans and I'll tear you to pieces!" he said, glaring at Etamon.

Etamon chuckled, "Well, well! Looks like we have some punk X digimon ready to defend his friends with his life. Well, come on; what's a little more data in my bank?" (7)

Betamon X walked five steps forward, and Etamon was surprised at this, "So you really do wanna die! Can't blame you when you're in the presence of the King."

"I won't be the one who's dying today." Betamon X snarled.

Etamon started to laugh again when he noticed a scar through Betamon X's main fin. It was a symbol that had been burned into it, but he didn't know what it meant. No one did, except Anubismon. "You... you're Anubismon's favorite... you're the Traitor!"

Betamon X looked up at Etamon, "Traitor... interesting... yes, I am known as Anubismon's favorite, the Traitor, the Cursed One, the Gemini!" Betamon X glared. Takashi slipped a card into his hand. "My name is Betamon... I ruled the oceans of the West Quadrant... A Dark Master... the ruler of the seas! That is me..." 

Etamon was paralyzed with fear. "You... you... it's impossible! You've been banished from the viruses!"

Betamon X glared. "Really... and yet, I hold all the secrets of the Dark Masters. You think we ruled the world through pure raw strength? No... We knew things about the viruses' ability to control and manipulate. That's why we were able to reach the level of power we did. Now... Feel the wrath of a Dark Master!" Betamon X growled as he started charging forward.

Takato turned to Takashi, astonished. "He's MetalSeadramon?" He asked in disbelief.

Takashi nodded, "Yeah... he's paying for his crimes now..."

Betamon X felt an old power return to his veins, a strength that he had not felt in a long time. It flowed up and through him, until he became Seadramon X. "ICE JAVELIN!" he cried as his whole body became a weapon, and slammed through Etamon.

Koromon X fell on the far side of the monkey, tumbling until his little body came to a stop, beaten, bruised and worn out. Takashi ran to him, running past Etamon's egg.

"Koromon?" he asked fearfully. Koromon looked up into the eyes of his Tamer, Ryudamon and Takato.

"You crazy fool." Ryudamon said to him, laughing.

Koromon grinned, "What can I say... it's me."

Takato chuckled. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind. "Let me get this straight; you're a Dark Master?" he asked.

Koromon nodded, though it was painful, and Takashi could tell as he winced.

Takato stood up. "Then Tai... Agumon... all the Destined are real?"

Takashi nodded and picked up Koromon and placed him on his head.

Ryudamon spoke up, "I've actually met Tai and Agumon. They were the ones who helped me escape to this place." she told Takato.

Takato was surprised, but before he could say anything, he heard a voice yelling to them.

"Takato!" Yamaki yelled, running to them.

Yamaki came to a halt in front of them, Riley a little bit behind him, carrying Suzie.

"What happened to Suzie?" Takato demanded, scared.

"We don't know." Riley told him, "We were on our way here when we found her collapsed against the ground."

Takato went over to her as Riley put her down. "There's a large amount of data running through her." she told him.

Takato was scared. What would Henry think... he, Takato had been in charge of her. Henry entrusted her to him, and there she was, lying on the ground unconscious. It scared him; he should have sent somebody else instead of Suzie.

"Takato!" The boy snapped to attention. "She'll be alright for now. What's happened?" Yamaki wanted to know.

Takato stood up. "The digital world appeared in the sky after some kinda sonic boom."

Yamaki looked at Riley. "Sonic boom... we didn't hear anything."

"It's because you're not data, or part data." Koromon X mumbled.

Yamaki nodded, and Takato continued. "Henry and Ryo got everybody out of here and I sent Suzie to go get you guys. Then a Pteradonmon showed up, and we fought it and Etamon off." he told him.

Yamaki nodded, and his palm pilot beeped. "Looks like we got another one…" Yamaki hefted the weapon off his back as a light shot between the two worlds and a Mammothmon floated down.

"Dad... is that a...?" Takashi questioned.

"Jackhammer? Yeah." Yamaki replied. Takashi shook his head laughing a bit.

"Finally!" the Mammothmon roared as he descended in the light. "I shall enter the human world. Nothing can stop it's Takeover!" He trumpeted as he landed. He turned around to see two 102mm rockets slam into him, deleting him to a digi-tama instantly.

Takato grinned. _That electromagnetic stuff is really useful. Just hope we don't have to fight a digimon in the city with that thing; it'll shoot towards the first piece of metal around._ He thought, when something occurred to him. "Wait... Yamaki's your dad?"

Takashi nodded, "Why do you think I've been going by my middle name all this time?" he asked.

"Then that means Riley's your mom?" Takato asked confused.

Riley laughed. "No, I'm his step-mom." she told him. _I'm Takashi's mom and I'm only twelve years older…_

"No... My mom died." Takashi told Takato.

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Dorimon had just watched his dad eat Blo**ss**omon and defeat him in a single blow. "Way past cool!" Dorimon shouted. "Can you teach me to do that?" Dorimon asked his dad.

Megidramon chuckled at his son. "Maybe when you're older."

"Come on Dad... teach me now!" Dorimon said, jumping around on his head.

_I've got one strange kid._ Guilmon thought, but didn't mind. "You can barely swallow a whole marshmallow, twerp."

Dorimon face was down cast, but was cheered up as he saw Zhuqiaomon came near them, "Hey Dad... Look, did this Sovereign come because I was born?" he asked.

"Don't get too full of yourself." Megidramon said, already weary of the phoenix.

The Phoenix landed in front of the Demon Dragon, "You have activated Hazard... why?!" he demanded. Zhuqiaomon was firm, but knew well enough that if Megidramon stayed as calm as he was, well, then things would turn out a lot better. Aggravating him would be the last thing he needed to do.

"My child was in trouble." Megidramon said firmly.

Zhuqiaomon was surprised, then laughed. "And to think; you gave everybody such a fright." he said.

Megidramon bowed. "I'm sorry... I cannot always control the power of Hazard and it has to go somewhere. Forgive me for everything I've done."

Zhuqiaomon nodded, "You're forgiven... but please don't make this a habit. It's going to cost a fortune to repair all the damage…" Zhuqiaomon thought for a second, "I've still have one question though."

"Yesss?" Megidramon hissed.

"Lopmon... why did you place the Hazard in her?!" he demanded, his voice full of ire.

Megidramon shook his head. "That's not something I did. She and I were caught by the Black Spirals, and Hazard activated on it's own to counteract it. Evidently it gave her the Hazard as well. I am sorry."

Zhuqiaomon nodded. "Well… Do please take care of it." Megidramon nodded, and the Phoenix Sovereign rose up into the air and started to fly off. Megidramon was about to as well, when a yellow light shot past the sovereign and consumed the Great Dragon.

Megidramon roared in pain as he felt the data from the light wrap around him. It bound him in every spot; he could not move, or even use an attack. He heard Dorimon cry out in pain as the light consumed the little in-training.

_No, Dorimon! _He thought, as he felt himself start to lose conscious as the light started to bring him up into the human world.

"DORIMON!" He yelled in a rage, using every bit of his strength to break the bonds of data that held him.

_**I can help.**_

_Hmmm?_

_**I can help... I can save your child... I can use the Hazard to the full extent.**_

_No... I Won't... I won't use it..._

_**Then you condemn your child to die. You condemn all the digimon in this world to die. You condemn Takato and Renamon to die.**_

_No!... I ... I ... Please... I want to help them._

_**Very well.**_

Megidramon's chest started to glow a brilliant Red, the light around him starting to fade as Hazard decimated the program, destroying every piece of it with ease.

Megidramon fell to the ground, his eyes malicious and cold, filled with hatred.

Zhuqiaomon was surprised as the light slammed into Megidramon. He flew up above the light, "BLAZING HELIX!" he cried as the attack slammed itself up against the light, doing nothing.

"PHEONIX FIRE!" he cried as the great fireball slammed into the light, but did nothing.

"What is this demonry?!" he demanded. To his surprise, the light fell from around Megidramon. (8)

Zhuqiaomon was relieved, oddly enough, to see the Demon Dragon.

"Megidramon, are you alright?" He asked.

Megidramon turned around, and his tail lashed out and jabbed itself into the Sovereign's chest. The Sovereign gasped as he was paralyzed in mid air.

Megidramon laughed evilly. "Do you feel it Zhuqiaomon?" he said, his voice different then any heard from him before. "I'm draining your data into me. Don't you feel how good it is? To think, in a few moments, you will be become a part of me. Doesn't that thought entertain you?" He asked manically, "Do you feel me draining you of your power, of your soul? You'll become part of the Hazard… Doesn't that thought entertain you?

Zhuqiaomon couldn't answer him as he felt his data being sucked into the Dragon.

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Armageddonmon watched the scene from his dream like trance. "By Fanglongmon." he swore. "He got out!" he yelled in a rage. He knew what this meant; the Digimon that he had used to create the Hazard was back, and after being isolated like that for so long, he had plenty of time to nurse his hatred and disgust of both him and the Digital World... Dukemon was back.

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_The editor would like to note that Rika is in a _hospital_, a place where, by definition, people are _injured

…_All I ask is how it's physically possible to be on your back _and_ ears… _at the same time_. Poor Rika must be a contortionist… _

_The editor would like to note that originally, F.T. mentioned something about the great Demon Dragon "slamming his mouth into her". Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't Megidramon the size of a school building? And Blossomon's human-sized? Roughly? All he needs to do is eat her like a piece of freakin' _popcorn

_So… when does Ryudamon have the power of telepathy? One does not generally talk one's inner musings out loud… Aha! I've proved psychic communication! Eat that, psychology!_

_Unless one of the digimon, or possibly Takashi, has Multiple Personality Disorder, there can't be four people there… _

_Okay… guess I was wrong. Apparently Takato's hangin' out there as well. Not sayin' a word. Doesn't that seem off about our goggle-headed hero?...Maybe he's a ninja!_

_How does one "take a chuckle"? Unless you're a ninja, that's physically impossible… And, apparently Betamon X has more than one life… so, is he part cat, too?_

_And apparently, the dictionary is now the Demonary… The number one spot to look up all your ancient summoning ritualistic needs, right here in the Demonary! For only 2 billion payments of a penny! (S&H not included. S&H cost 15.00$. Per book.)_

_Betamon X: Wait, why are my comments Italicized?  
_

_Gomamon: Because Frozen is to lazy to change it._

_Fine._

Betamon X: ah, much better.

Gomamon: Yes, so much better.

Alright readers, hear's the deal, I'm sorry to say, I really haven't had much motivation to write this story lately, I don't know why, and I'm sorry. I promise you that I will finish this story... even if I have to do a kill everyone ending... this story will end.

Betamon X: Yeah... Kill Everyone Ending!

So, you review would be very much appreciated, and we'll see if my motivation level doesn't get back up to the level it should be at. Thanks

Sincerely

Frozen Twins

Betamon X

Gomamon

P.S. Betamon X:... yes, we were on a Naruto high when we wrote this... what's your point.


	9. Authors Note It's going to be awhile

Dear Readers,

No, this is not a quitting the story note…

Betamon X: We just thought it would be fun to give you a heart attack.

I'm just here to inform you that I won't be writing another chapter for awhile now, however I'm going to go back and change the old chapters and essentially to a drastic redit and get rid of some stuff, and add other things. The sections that I edit will be marked with a right after the three lines that separate my scenes.

Frozen Twins

BetamonX

Gomamon


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